LONDON: 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.

US 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.

As many as 28 matches were cancelled by mid-afternoon including those featuring third seed Daniil Medvedev and 19th seed Alexander Zverev.

Monday’s late action saw American stars Coco Gauff and Venus Williams knocked out.

Seventh-ranked Gauff slumped to a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 defeat to fellow American Sofia Kenin, who came through qualifyng.

Kenin, now ranked 128th in the world, was Australian Open champion and French Open runner-up in 2020 before injury and loss of form saw her career slip into a downward spiral.

“This means a lot -- I had to go through qualies [qualification],” she said. “I battled out there. I am super proud of myself.”

An emotional Gauff admitted she “had a lot to work on”.

There was no fairytale for five-time champion Venus, the 43-year-old American who made her debut at the tournament in 1997.

Venus, playing the singles event for the 24th time, was defeated 6-4, 6-3 by fellow wild card Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, a semi-finalist in 2019.

Venus took a nasty tumble early in the first set on Centre Court, hurting her right knee, which was already heavily strapped. She required two visits by the trainer before her challenge fizzled out under the weight of 33 unforced errors.

“I was literally killing it, then I got killed by the grass,” said Venus.

Also making the next round were men’s fourth seed Casper Ruud and eighth-seeded Jannik Sinner.

Italian Sinner impressed as he trounced Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 while Ruud of Norway had a little more trouble, dropping a set on his way past French qualifier Laurent Lokoli.

Canada’s 11th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime became the highest men’s seed to fall though, suffering a shock 7-6 (7/4), 6-7(4/7), 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 defeat against American Michael Mmoh.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2023