LONDON (Reuters) – Wimbledon top seed Carlos Alcaraz overpowered Frenchman Jeremy Chardy’s and holder Elena Rybakina shook off a slow start to progress as persistent showers severely disrupted Tuesday’s schedule.
U.S. Open champion Alcaraz, who topped the world rankings after his Queen’s Club triumph last week, crushed Chardy 6-0 6-2 7-5 on Court One and Wimbledon’s favourite son Roger Federer received rapturous applause on his return to Centre Court in the Royal Box.
“After the match I was on the phone checking everything I have, all the stories, all the posts. I saw that Federer was here. I was a little bit jealous,” a beaming Alcaraz told reporters.
“Honestly, I want him to watch one of my matches obviously. I wish to talk a little bit with him. That would be amazing.”
With the retired Swiss watching on from the Royal Box, Rybakina battled to beat American Shelby Rogers 4-6 6-1 6-2 to ease concerns about her fitness following an illness that forced her out of last month’s French Open.
Rybakina said she felt the jitters playing at the scene of her greatest triumph.
“It didn’t help me much,” Rybakina said.
“But amazing atmosphere, it’s the first time I’ve played under the roof and the grass is on the baseline. It’s amazing.
“Really happy to go through to the next round and just enjoying the moment here.”
Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, who lost to the Moscow-born Kazakh in the final last year, made a solid start to her bid to claim her maiden Grand Slam title as the world number six beat Pole Magdalena Frech 6-3 6-3.
Heavy rain caused matches on the outside courts to be suspended while organisers cancelled a host of clashes with a scheduling headache likely to follow as several matches had been carried over from Monday.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
