Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has no regrets over costly underarm serve

The Spaniard pulled out the shot at 8-8 in the deciding fifth-set tie-break in his defeat to Holger Rune.

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina hit a costly underarm serve in the fifth set tie-break of his third-round defeat (John Walton/PA) (PA Wire)

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina insisted he had no regrets despite an ill-advised underarm serve virtually handing victory to Holger Rune in their third-round clash at Wimbledon.

The Spaniard had let an 8-5 lead slip in the deciding first-to-10-point tie-break when, at 8-8, he decided to pull out an underarm serve, which sixth seed Rune easily put away before clinching a 6-3 4-6 3-6 6-4 7-6 (8) win on the next point.

Davidovich Fokina was unrepentant, though, calling the shot simply “another serve”. Asked if he would make the same decision again, he added: “Why not?”

The 24-year-old, who is ranked 34, insisted he would look back on the match positively, saying: “I won’t regret anything.

“I’m happy for this match that I did because I was struggling on grass and how I played today I convinced myself that I have a lot of things in myself.”

It is the third time in his last five matches at Wimbledon that Davidovich Fokina has shot himself in the foot with highly questionable decisions.

In a first-round meeting with Hubert Hurkacz 12 months ago, he was 40-0 up serving for the match in the third set when he tried an unnecessary tweener.

Davidovich Fokina did eventually come through that one in a deciding fifth-set tie-break only to lose to Jiri Vesely in another tie-break in the second round when he smashed a ball out of the court while match point down and was given a point penalty.

Rune has had plenty of dramatic moments in grand slams himself this season and has now played a match tie-break at each event – losing to Andrey Rublev in Australia before beating Francisco Cerundolo in Paris.

He certainly was not complaining about Davidovich Fokina’s moment of madness, saying: “I was not expecting for sure that that was going to come.

“Actually it was nice because he was serving unbelievable so I was like, ‘OK’, it was a chance to get a match point. I had to be fast with the feet. Wow, what a match.”

Rune next faces either Frances Tiafoe or Grigor Dimitrov, who was leading by two sets to love when rain forced an early end to the day’s play on the outside courts.