Wimbledon: 2-time defending champ Carlos Alcaraz needs 5 sets to beat Fabio Fognini in the 1st round

LONDON (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz, locked in a five-set struggle at Centre Court, looked toward his coach Monday and shouted something about how Fabio Fognini — 38 years old, retiring after this season, winless in 2025 — looked as if he could keep playing until he’s 50.

“I don’t know why it’s his last Wimbledon,” Alcaraz said later, “because the level he has shown, he can still play three or four more years. Unbelievable.”

The two-time defending champion at the All England Club needed to go through more than 4 1/2 hours of back-and-forth shifts against the much-older and much-less-accomplished Fognini before emerging with a 7-5, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 victory in the first round.

It wasn't supposed to be that tough.

“Didn't expect to play five sets against him,” Fognini said. “I had my chance.”

Consider, to begin with, that the No. 2-seeded Alcaraz is 22, already a five-time Grand Slam champion, including his latest at the French Open three weeks ago, and is currently on a career-best 19-match winning streak.

Consider, too, that Fognini has never been past the third round at the All England Club in 15 appearances and reached the quarterfinals at any major tournament just once — way back at the 2011 French Open. He entered Monday ranked 138th and 0-6 this year.

Oh, and then there’s this: Only twice has the reigning men’s champion at Wimbledon been beaten in the first round the following year, Lleyton Hewitt in 2003 and Manuel Santana in 1967.

There were times Monday when Alcaraz appeared to be something less than his best, far from the form he displayed during his epic five-set, 5 1/2-hour comeback victory over No. 1 Jannik Sinner for the championship at Roland-Garros.

Alcaraz double-faulted nine times. He faced a hard-to-believe 21 break points. He made more unforced errors, 62, than winners, 52.

He chalked some of that up to jitters.

“It doesn’t matter the winning streak that I have right now, that I’ve been playing great on grass, that I've been preparing really well,” said Alcaraz, who beat Novak Djokovic in the 2023 and 2024 finals. “Wimbledon is different. I could feel today that I was really nervous at the beginning.”

Next for Alcaraz will be a match Wednesday against Oliver Tarvet, a 21-year-old British qualifier who plays college tennis at the University of San Diego and is ranked 733rd.

Still, Alcaraz said: “I have to improve in the next round.”

Fognini — whose wife, 2015 U.S. Open champion Flavia Pennetta, held one of their children in the stands — is a self-described hothead and is known for mid-match flareups, including at Wimbledon, where he was fined $3,000 in 2019 for saying during a match that he wished “a bomb would explode at the club” and a then-record $27,500 in 2014 for a series of outbursts. He was put on a two-year probation by the Grand Slam Board in 2017 after insulting a female chair umpire at the U.S. Open and getting kicked out of that tournament.

Such behavior wasn't displayed Monday. And when Alcaraz pushed a forehand long to cede the fourth set, Fognini nodded toward his guest box, where a member of his entourage stood to snap a photo with a cellphone. Things were picture-perfect for Fognini at that moment.

But at the outset of the fifth — the first time the previous year’s male champ was pushed that far in the first round since Roger Federer in 2010 — Alcaraz recalibrated.

When the Spaniard broke to lead 2-0 in that set with a backhand volley winner, he pointed toward the stands, threw an uppercut and screamed, “Vamos!” In the next game, he saved a pair of break points, before the match was paused for more than 10 minutes because a spectator felt ill amid record-breaking high temperatures for Day 1 of Wimbledon.

When they resumed, Alcaraz outplayed Fognini the rest of the way. Fognini said he cried in the locker room afterward.

While Alcaraz escaped, seven seeded men exited on Day 1, including 2021 runner-up Matteo Berrettini, No. 8 Holger Rune, No. 9 Daniil Medvedev — who also lost in the first round at the French Open — No. 16 Francisco Cerundolo, No. 20 Alexei Popyrin, No. 24 Stefanos Tsitsipas — who quit because of a persistent lower-back problem — and No. 31 Tallon Griekspoor. No. 20 Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champ, lost, while women’s winners included No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 6 Madison Keys, 2023 Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova and 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu.

No. 2 Coco Gauff, coming off her second major title, plays in Day 2's last match at Centre Court against Dayana Yastremska. The other matches in the main arena, starting at 1:30 p.m. local time (8:30 a.m. EDT), are defending champion Barbora Krejcikova against Alexandra Eala, followed by 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic against Alexandre Muller. No. 1 Sinner meets fellow Italian Luca Nardi at No. 1 Court.

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, left, greets Fabio Fognini of Italy at the net after winning their first round men's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Fabio Fognini of Italy walks into the net and loses the point as he plays Carlos Alcaraz of Spain during their first round men's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain reacts after breaking the serve of Fabio Fognini of Italy during their first round men's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain celebrates after beating Fabio Fognini of Italy during their first round men's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, left, greets Fabio Fognini of Italy at the net after winning their first round men's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain celebrates after beating Fabio Fognini of Italy during their first round men's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Israel’s air force struck areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday and early Tuesday, including in the country's third-largest city.

A strike around 1 a.m. Tuesday leveled a three-story commercial building in the southern coastal city of Sidon, a few days before Lebanon’s army commander is scheduled to brief the government on its mission of disarming militant group Hezbollah in areas along the border with Israel.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in a statement Tuesday condemned the attacks as counter to both international efforts to deescalate hostilities and Lebanon’s efforts to extend the government's authority into areas long dominated by Hezbollah and to disarm militants.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene in Sidon said the area was in a commercial district containing workshops and mechanic shops and the building was uninhabited.

At least one person was transported by ambulance and rescue teams were searching the site for others, but no deaths have been reported.

Israel's military said Tuesday they targeted weapons storage sites and infrastructure belonging to the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas. They acknowledged the sites were located in civilian areas but blamed the groups for operating there.

The strikes were the latest in near-daily Israeli military action since a ceasefire signed more than a year ago that included a Lebanese pledge to disarm militant groups, which Israel says has not been fulfilled.

They took place nearly two hours after Israel’s military Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted warnings on X that the military would strike targets in two villages in the eastern Bekaa Valley and two others in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said a home struck in the village of Manara in the Bekaa Valley belonged to Sharhabil al-Sayed, a Hamas military commander who was killed in an Israeli drone strike in May 2024.

The areas were evacuated after Israel's warning. There were no reports of casualties in those strikes. Earlier Monday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said a drone strike on a car in the southern village of Braikeh earlier Monday wounded two people. The Israeli military said the strike targeted two Hezbollah members.

The Lebanese army last year began the disarmament process of Palestinian groups while the government has said that by the end of 2025 all the areas close to the border with Israel — known as the south Litani area — will be clear of Hezbollah’s armed presence.

The Lebanese government is scheduled to discuss Hezbollah’s disarmament during a meeting Thursday that will be attended by army commander Gen. Rudolph Haikal.

Monday’s airstrikes were in villages north of the Litani river and far from the border with Israel.

The disarmament of Hezbollah and other Palestinian groups by the Lebanese government came after a 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah in which much of the political and military leadership of the Iran-backed group was killed.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel launched a widespread bombardment of Lebanon in September 2024 that severely weakened Hezbollah, followed by a ground invasion.

The war ended in November 2024 with a ceasefire brokered by the U.S.

Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes since then, mainly targeting Hezbollah members but also killing at least 127 civilians, according to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

People check a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike at a commercial district, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People check a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike at a commercial district in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People check the site where an Israeli strike destroyed a building at a commercial district in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

People look through the rubble of a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike at a commercial district in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Lebanese fire fighter extinguish a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Rescue workers search for possible victims in a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Lebanese Red Cross volunteers search for possible victims in a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, early Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)