Fabio Fognini comes close to pulling off feat, Carlos Alcaraz bails out in fifth set

Fabio Fognini cradled the dream of beating Carlos Alcaraz in the first round of Wimbledon for a long time but eventually had to surrender, raising the white flag in the fifth set.

In the previous four, however, it was not a solo affair for the Spaniard who, on the contrary, went down immediately and after coming back up revisited the ghosts of an elimination that would have been resounding.

In the fifth set, however, the 38-year-old Ligurian paid the price for his identity card while the world No. 2 upped the pace and avoided the embarrassment.

The final score of 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 however was worth the applause as he left the court for Fabio Fognini, who unleashed many “red circle” shots.