Alcaraz, Sinner eye Wimbledon third round

LONDON:

World number one Jannik Sinner takes on Italian compatriot and former runner-up Matteo Berrettini for a place in the Wimbledon third round on Wednesday.

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and four-time major winner Naomi Osaka also target places in the last 32.

Alcaraz faces a man who once defeated him in a Grand Slam qualifier while Osaka’s rival is the daughter of an American billionaire.

AFP Sport looks at three matches to watch on day three of the tournament:

Italian men’s tennis has rarely been stronger, with the country boasting five players in the top 50 while the nation swept to Davis Cup glory last season.

Ten Italian men started the singles tournament this year at Wimbledon.

Jannik Sinner was the first Italian man to capture a Grand Slam title with his victory at the Australian Open in January and was also the first from his country to become world number one.

Matteo Berrettini can boast his own breakthrough Italian moment when he was the first to make a Wimbledon men’s final in 2021, where his run was ended by Novak Djokovic.

Sinner, who made the semi-finals at the All England Club last year, defeated Berrettini in their only previous meeting at the Masters-level event in Canada last year.

“I think his secret is that he is really hungry for improvement. That’s his secret. And the humbleness that he has about it. He’s just special,” said Berrettini of his compatriot.

Third-ranked Carlos Alcaraz is bidding to become just the sixth man after Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to win the French Open and Wimbledon titles back to back.

He defeated dreadlocked Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal in the first round on Monday as he started his bid for a fourth Grand Slam title after adding last year’s Wimbledon to his 2022 US Open breakthrough.

Aleksandar Vukic enjoyed an impressive run to the semi-finals of the Eastbourne grass-court tournament last week after only making the main draw as a lucky loser from qualifying.

The 28-year-old Australian, ranked at 69 in the world, was born in Sydney after his parents fled Montenegro during the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

He booked his date with Alcaraz the hard way, saving a match point in a five-set triumph over Sebastian Ofner, facing down 24 aces and 72 winners from the Austrian.

Vukic can boast one career win over Alcaraz -- he came out on top against the then 17-year-old Spaniard in the first round of qualifying for the 2020 French Open.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka defeated Diane Parry of France in the first round to register her first win at Wimbledon since 2018.

Former world number one Osaka, still feeling her way back on tour after giving birth to daughter Shai last July, fired 34 winners past Parry on a surface that should be the perfect fit for her powerful game.

“It felt really fun and really stressful at the same time,” said 113th-ranked Osaka, whose last appearance at Wimbledon in 2019 had ended in a first round exit.

On Wednesday, the Japanese star takes on America’s 17th-ranked Emma Navarro, who arrived in London on the back of a semi-final run at the Bad Homburg grass-court tournament.

Navarro has high achievement in the genes -- her father Ben Navarro is a former vice-president of banking giant Citigroup.

Forbes recently estimated his worth at $1.5 billion.