Alcaraz beats Struff in four sets to keep Wimbledon defense alive

The defending champion stays in the draw

Carlos Alcaraz moved into Wimbledon's fourth round on 4 July 2025, defeating Jan-Lennard Struff 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court. The second seed's victory extended his career-best winning streak to 21 matches and kept his pursuit of a third consecutive Wimbledon title alive. His next opponent was 14th seed Andrey Rublev, who beat Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 6-2, 6-3.

The final score reflected a substantial response from Struff after a one-sided opening set. Alcaraz won the first by five games, but the German took the second and made the champion play through another interruption to his momentum. The Spaniard recovered with successive 6-3 and 6-4 sets rather than allowing the match to stretch to a decider.

Struff finds a route into the contest

ATP's match report identified a specific weakness during the second set: Alcaraz won only 53 percent of points behind his first serve and struggled to challenge Struff's delivery. The German's serving therefore changed the balance after the early 6-1 deficit. A strong opening set had not guaranteed that Alcaraz would retain the same control over the return games.

The response underlined why Struff had been an awkward opponent despite his No.125 ranking. The relevant question was how effectively his game operated on grass, particularly once his serve could support his attacking tennis. Alcaraz still found the two further sets needed to win, but the second-set reversal showed that the favorite had to solve a live competitive problem rather than rely on the ranking gap.

The previous meetings warned against complacency

The ITF's pre-match notes put the encounter in a useful historical frame. Struff had beaten Alcaraz in the third round of Roland-Garros in 2021, on the Spaniard's debut at that event. Their only previous Wimbledon meeting came in the first round in 2022 and lasted five sets before Alcaraz prevailed.

The pair had also met in Madrid's 2023 final and 2024 round of 16. Alcaraz won both, each in a deciding set. Thus every earlier Alcaraz victory over Struff had required more than the minimum number of sets. That record made the German's recovery on Centre Court part of an established competitive pattern between them, rather than an entirely unexpected change in the match.

Alcaraz was 22 and Struff 35 at this meeting, but the older player's previous results supplied direct reasons to expect resistance. The fourth-round place still had to be earned on the court.

Three rounds with different demands

Alcaraz's opening week had already tested his ability to adjust. Fabio Fognini took him to five sets in the first round, a match lasting four hours and 37 minutes. In the second, Alcaraz beat British qualifier Oliver Tarvet 6-1, 6-4, 6-4, using 37 winners and six breaks of serve to finish in two hours and 17 minutes.

Struff supplied a third distinct challenge: a rapid opening followed by a lost set and renewed pressure from an experienced grass-court opponent. Finishing in four sets preserved Alcaraz's place in the title defense and avoided another five-set workload. The immediate consequence was a match against Rublev for a quarterfinal berth, with the champion still advancing through a draw that had demanded more than uninterrupted dominance.