Alcaraz, firm at Wimbledon

Carlos Alcaraz had another up-and-down performance at Wimbledon, starting with a loss in the first set. He then threatened to be broken and fell further behind in the third. And then, as he often does, he seized the moment, produced some magic, and moved closer to a third consecutive title at the All England Club.

Alcaraz extended his winning streak at grass-court Grand Slams to 18 — and his current unbeaten streak at all tournaments to 22 — by rallying to beat 14th-seeded Andrey Rublev 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals.

In the first meeting of this year's Wimbledon between two men ranked in the top 20, number two Alcaraz brought out his best when trailing 3-2 in the third set. First, he had to defend a break point against Rublev, doing so with a forehand winner.

After holding serve, Alcaraz earned his own break point and didn't let Rublev slip away. In an eight-shot exchange, the Spaniard raced from one corner of the court to the other and, with a stomp of his right foot and a small slide, won the point with a forehand crosscourt shot.

Alcaraz extended his arms, pointed to his right ear, and enjoyed the loud ovation from the crowd, the noise bouncing off the underside of the stadium's closed roof.

Rublev sat in his chair on the sidelines, looked toward his guest box, and made a sarcastic "OK" hand sign. Just 10 minutes later, that set belonged to Alcaraz, who will face Cam Norrie, the 2022 semifinalist and last British player remaining in the singles draw, in the next round on Tuesday for a spot in the semifinals.

“I've always said it's about believing in yourself. It doesn't matter if you're a set down,” Alcaraz said. “Tennis is a sport that can change in a single point. One point can change the entire match, turn everything around.”

Norrie (ranked 61) advanced with a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-7 (5) and 6-3 victory over Chilean Nicolas Jarry, who hit 46 aces.

The other men's quarterfinal duel on Tuesday will be between Taylor Fritz (5) and Karen Khachanov (17).

Fritz, the reigning U.S. Open runner-up, advanced to the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the third time in four years after his opponent, Jordan Thompson, was injured and retired while trailing 6-1, 3-0 after 41 minutes.

Alcaraz is only 22 years old and already has five Grand Slam trophies, the most recent coming in June at the French Open. He hasn't lost a match anywhere since April 20, when he fell in the Barcelona final to Holger Rune.

Aryna, go ahead

World number one Aryna Sabalenka reached the quarterfinals of her eleventh consecutive Grand Slam tournament, defeating Belgian Elise Mertens 6-4, 7-6. Her next opponent will be Laura Siegemund, the 37-year-old German who defeated Argentine Solana Sierra 6-3, 6-2.

Siegemund was coming off an upset of Australian Open champion Madison Keys. When Siegemund's age was mentioned during an on-court interview, the crowd applauded, and she joked, "It's not often you get a compliment for being old."

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova overcame a miscall at the end of the first set when the electronic system replacing the line judges went off, and ended up beating local Sonay Kartal 7-6 (3) and 6-4 to return to the quarterfinals of the grass-court major for the first time in nine years. Her opponent will be American Amanda Anisimova (13), who defeated Czech Linda Noskova (30) 6-2, 5-7 and 6-4.