(London) Carlos Alcaraz continued his learning on grass by qualifying Friday evening for the semi-finals of the Queen’s tournament against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in two sets 6-4, 6-4.
The 2nd player in the world only trembled at the start of the second round against the 26th in the world, winner of the London tournament in 2014, but who had to go through the qualifications this year to integrate the main draw.
The young Spaniard made the break from the very first game of the game. The 32-year-old Dimitrov got three equalizers well in 3 games all on opposing serve. But this long game – 11 minutes 30 seconds – finally turned in favor of Alcaraz (4-2), who maintained their lead before quietly concluding four games later with a shutout after 40 minutes of play.
Facing an opponent he had dominated in their first two meetings without dropping a single set, at Bercy in 2022 and on clay in Madrid in early May, Alcaraz missed their start to the second set, finding themselves trailing 3-0. .
But the ex-N. 3 in the world, who never really realized the hopes placed in him when he appeared on the circuit fifteen years ago, did not hold up.
After giving up the next four games, he nevertheless recovered at 4-4 by taking the Spaniard’s service for the second time in the match. Before immediately giving up his commitment, with a double fault in the key, and allowing Alcaraz to win on his first match point.
For only the third grass court tournament of his career, after Wimbledon 2021 (2nd round loss) and Wimbledon 2022 (8th round loss), Alcaraz will face in the semi-finals the American Sebastian Korda, who tamed the local hero, Cameron Norrie (N.5) 6-4, 7-6 (7/1).
Denmark’s Holger Rune, seeded N.2 who had never won a game on grass before this Queen’s, showed off his progress on the box to brush off Italian Lorenzo Musetti (N.6) 6-4 7 -5.
The young Dane, who could settle in 5th place in the ATP rankings if crowned in London, will face for a place in the final the Australian Alex de Minaur, who stopped the Frenchman Adrien Mannarino, 46th player in the world , 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Previous-round winner of No. 3 seeded American Taylor Fritz, 34-year-old Mannarino held on as hard as he could against the No. 18 and seeded No. never had the ascendancy in the meeting.
