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John McEnroe criticised Carlos Alcaraz's performance in the defending Wimbledon champion's five-set victory over Fabio Fognini, describing him as looking as 'flat as a pancake'.

Alcaraz came through a surprisingly difficult test against the Italian veteran, whose recent form has been poor. The Spaniard made extremely hard work of a 7-5 6-7 7-5 2-6 6-1 triumph, which sets up a clash with British qualifier and world No. 733 Oliver Tarvet. McEnroe felt that Alcaraz was not at ease with his serves or forehand. The 66-year-old was 'surprised' and believes the match was a 'wake-up call' to the reigning two-time champion, who he feels has had a 'perfect' ride of late.

Speaking on the BBC, McEnroe said: "Carlos looked as flat as a pancake. Why? I don't know. Perhaps he assumed this Fognini would fall away pretty quickly. His serve was off, his forehand... to see him play like that was surprising. You've got to give Fognini credit, but he was up a set and 4-2. He should have won the second set.

"He was up 4-2 or 5-3 in the third and he barely pulled that set out. He got blown out in the fourth. It's a good wake-up call for him. He won Queen's, everything was perfect, same as last year. He won the French Open, pulls out an incredible match [against Jannik Sinner], parties in Ibiza with his buddies, comes to Queen's and almost loses early, but goes on and wins it. Perhaps it's going to be similar here."

McEnroe praised former world No. 9 Fognini for rising to the occasion of playing on Centre Court against the defending champion. He expected the 38-year-old, who has recently hinted at retirement, to be thrashed in straight sets.

"That's one of the most interesting first-round matches that I can recall off the top of my head, here at Wimbledon. The conditions helped that to some degree. Fognini is a guy who rises to the occasion," McEnroe added. "This is a guy who had [barely] won a match since the [autumn]. None. He's losing in Challenger first rounds.

"The grass court season led you to believe he would lose first round in straight sets. But he plays differently than most players, he's old-school, he takes the ball early and hits it pretty flat. Very clean. He was clearly playing well at the beginning and milking this atmosphere, going out at Centre Court rather than Court 16 somewhere."