It's a good wake-up call for him," McEnroe analyzes after Alcaraz's tough win against Fognini at Wimbledon

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Clément Gehl

le 01/07/2025 à 12h11

2 min to read

Alcaraz Fognini McEnroe Wimbledon

While a relatively straightforward match seemed likely for Carlos Alcaraz against Fabio Fognini, the Spaniard ultimately had to fight hard and only won in five sets.

John McEnroe analyzed the match and, in his view, this victory could serve as a good warning signal.

He stated, in comments reported by *Tennis Gazette*: "This is one of the most interesting first-round matches I can remember here at Wimbledon. I think the conditions played a part in that to some extent.

Fognini is a player who knows how to rise to the occasion. He hasn’t won a single match since the fall. He loses in the first round of Challenger events.

His grass-court season suggested a straight-sets defeat, but his game is different from most players.

He’s old-school, takes the ball early, and hits it quite flat. He’s very clean. He was clearly playing well early on and fed off the atmosphere of being on Centre Court rather than Court 16.

Carlos looked flat as a pancake. Why? I don’t know. Maybe he thought Fognini would roll over easily. His serve was poor. His forehand was poor.

Seeing him play like that was surprising, but I have to give credit to Fognini. But he was up a set, 4-2. He should have won the second set. He was ahead in the third and managed to scrape through.

Then he got crushed in the fourth. It’s a good wake-up call for him. He won Queen’s. Everything’s perfect, just like last year.

He wins Roland Garros, plays an incredible match, parties in Ibiza, arrives at Queen’s, nearly loses early but wins.

So the preparation is quite similar, and the expected results are similar. But he’s still got work to do.