Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday reached his first quarter-final on grass as the world No. 2 crushed Jiri Lehecka in the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen’s Club.
Alcaraz is competing at Queen’s for the first time and the Spanish star is gradually finding his footing on the lawns of west London.
The 20-year-old routed Lehecka 6-2, 6-3 as he improved on a labored first-round win over Arthur Rinderknech.
Photo: AFP
Alcaraz won the US Open last year and reached the French Open semi-finals earlier this month, losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic on the Paris clay.
Yet to go past the Wimbledon round-of-16, Alcaraz believes he is making strides at just the right time, with the All England Club tournament starting on July 3.
“I’ll enjoy my first quarter-final, it’s a beautiful place to play and I’m enjoying every second here,” Alcaraz said. “It’s more practice and I am happy getting experience on grass. After this match the expectation changes. I think I’m ready to get a good result on grass.”
Top seed Alcaraz was to face former Queen’s champion Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals after the Bulgarian defeated Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-5.
Andy Murray’s first-round conqueror Alex de Minaur defeated Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-2 to book a quarter-final against France’s Adrian Mannarino, who beat Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-6 (9/7).
British No. 1 Cameron Norrie was to meet American Sebastian Korda in the last eight.
Norrie would have plenty of attention as the last Briton in the tournament, but the 27-year-old says he would not enjoy the unrelenting spotlight of the recent Netflix tennis documentary Break Point.
Nick Kyrgios, Matteo Berrettini and Fritz were among the players followed by the Netflix cameras.
“For me it’s more important to keep training as hard as I can, and to be known for being a tennis player and a good competitor,” Norrie said.
“I think it’s a big distraction having the cameraman there full time,” the former Wimbledon semi-finalist added. “I probably wouldn’t do it, but that’s me right now. I can understand why some players fancy it and why they are choosing the players that they are.”
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