JABAR EKSPRES – Carlos Alcaraz reached his first quarter-final on grass after the world number two defeated Jiri Lehecka 6-2, 6-3 in the Wimbledon warm-up tournament at Queen’s Club, London, Thursday (6/22) local time.
Tennis player aged 20 that year competed at Queen’s for the first time and the Spaniard gradually found his footing on the grass court.
Alcaraz won the US Open last year and reached the semifinals of the French Open earlier in June but lost to Novak Djokovic who eventually became champion on the Paris clay court.
However, in order to get past Wimbledon’s round of 16, Alcaraz believes he is making progress at the right time as the All England Club tournament gets underway on July 3.
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“I will enjoy my first quarter-final. It’s a beautiful place to play and I enjoy every second here,” Alcaraz said, as broadcast by AFP on Friday.
“It requires more practice and I’m happy to get experience on grass courts. After this match my expectations changed. I think I’m ready to get good results on grass.”
Top seed Alcaraz will face former Queen’s champion Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals on Friday after the Bulgarian beat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-5.
Meanwhile, Alex De Minaur who beat Andy Murray in the first round, beat Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-2 to book a quarterfinal against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino who beat Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-6 (9/7).
British number one Cameron Norrie meets American Sebastian Korda in the last eight.
Norrie will get a lot of attention as the last British player in the tournament, but the 27-year-old admitted he did not enjoy the spotlight of the recent Netflix tennis documentary “Break Point”.
Nick Kyrgios, Matteo Berrettini, and Fritz were among the tennis players followed by the cameras of “Break Point.”
