Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz survives another huge scare on Centre Court as he edges Ugo Humbert out for a place in the quarter-finals

Carlos Alcaraz was on his backside, practically performing the splits to the right of the court. Then he was so far out of the picture to the left that it was tempting to pin his location as SW18. Next he was sliding towards the net as if secretly wearing Heelys.

All that occurred in the space of a single point – the one which broke Ugo Humbert’s serve to secure Wimbledon ’s defending champion the second set en route to this 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 victory in nearly three hours on Centre Court.

It was a ridiculous display of resilience from the No 3 seed, an exhibition of excellence which can only have tempted a few newspaper folk to recycle that old ‘no escape from Alcaraz’ headline.

Try as he might – and Humbert certainly threw caution to the wind after that remarkable rally – there was no stopping Alcaraz from reaching his ninth Grand Slam quarter-final at the age of 21.

Perhaps this was a good omen for Alcaraz's countrymen, a Spaniard beating a Frenchman.

He now hopes Wimbledon's schedulers will kindly avoid clashing him with Spain versus France at Euro 2024 on Tuesday as he said: ‘I have a really good relationship with a few players of the team, particularly Alvaro Morata.

'Hopefully we are not going to play at the same time. I won in the tennis part, so hopefully the Spanish team is going to win the football part.’

In Humbert, seeded 16th but a chronic under-performer at Grand Slams, Alcaraz was facing a left-hander at Wimbledon for the first time. Only once had he taken on a southpaw on grass at all, losing to Jack Draper at Queen’s last month.

Yet rather seeing how he handled his latest leftie challenge in the early exchanges, those on Centre Court found themselves looking upward, distracted by the rain battering the roof so hard that you could hardly hear the sound of Alcaraz’s 107mph forehands.

Wimbledon’s showpiece stadium proved much more watertight than Manchester United’s Old Trafford, thankfully, as the only leaks which appeared were in Humbert’s early play.

Alcaraz did not have to work particularly hard to claim the opening set, one corker of a backhand prompting him to stand and stare at his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero to make sure he saw it. We all did as Humbert appeared powerless to stop Alcaraz, whose forehands can be so ferocious that they even look fast in slow-motion replays.

It was after an hour and at 2-2 in the second set that Humbert secured four opportunities to break while he and Alcaraz did the deuce dance. Yet whatever the Frenchman threw at the Spaniard, it came back with mustard on it, none of those chances being taken.

At set point and with Humbert serving, Alcaraz produced something that he himself later described as ‘unbelievable’. He was on the floor then off it, sprinting right and left and chasing shots that everyone else thought were lost causes. Yet just like Joe Biden, Alcaraz insisted on running in the face of hopelessness, his perseverance ultimately rewarded.

Credit must go to Humbert because at two sets down to Alcaraz, others might have been searching through their whites for the flag. Yet he embarked on an excellent third set in which he secured a triple break, taking it 6-1 as he pounded his chest towards the crowd.

Alcaraz was ranting and raving in the fourth set, angry with himself while Humbert reached new levels. At 5-5, however, heavy topspin fooled his opponent into thinking a forehand was long. Catching the line, Alcaraz had his break and then served his way to victory.