Carlos Alcaraz avoided another scare at the Queen’s Club ATP 500 event as the top-seeded Spaniard dispatched France’s Arthur Rinderknech with little fuss 7-5, 6-4 to reach the semifinals on Friday.
Wimbledon champion Alcaraz toiled for three hours in stifling heat on Thursday to edge past fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar in a titanic scrap and afterwards admitted he did not know how he was still standing.
It was far more straightforward against unseeded Rinderknech, the player he also beat in his opening match two years ago when he went on to win the title at the prestigious Wimbledon warm-up event in west London.
The 22-year-old converted each of his two break points as he extended his sequence of match wins to a career-long 16.
“I could be better (physically). Honestly I was thinking I was going to feel much worse than I did today,” the five-time Grand Slam champion said on court.
“I’m glad it was only one hour 20 minutes today.”
Alcaraz will face another Spaniard in the semifinal after Roberto Bautista Agut defeated fourth seed Holger Rune 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-2 for the 37-year-old’s first win over the Dane in four meetings.
Rune failed to force a single break point, but managed to save 12 of 14 himself to take Bautista Agut to a deciding set, where the Spaniard finally broke twice.
Britain’s Jack Draper continued his Wimbledon build-up as he reached the semifinals at Queen’s for the first time with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 defeat of American Brandon Nakashima.
Draper not only kept himself on track for the prestigious ATP 500 title, but also secured the win that guarantees a top-four seeding at Wimbledon where he will be the big home hope.
While being ranked fourth means Draper will avoid either defending champion Alcaraz or world number one Jannik Sinner until the semifinals at Wimbledon, Draper shrugged off the significance of that when asked about it.
“I kept getting asked about that by the journalists but I’ve got to reach the semifinals first,” he said.
“But it is an incredible position. I was at Wimbledon last year ranked 40 so to go there as fourth seed is a testament to all the hard work my team has done, so very proud of that.”
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
