Spain's Carlos Alcaraz wins his first grass-court title at Queen's Club with victory ensuring that he overtakes Novak Djokovic as world No 1 on Monday and becomes top seed for Wimbledon, which begins on July 3
Monday 26 June 2023 07:01, UK
Carlos Alcaraz secured his first grass-court title with victory over Alex de Minaur in the final at Queen's Club on Sunday before declaring he's one of the favourites to win Wimbledon.
The 20-year-old Spaniard will now overtake Novak Djokovic as world No 1 on Monday, and confirmed he will be a major contender to take the Serb's crown at Wimbledon next month, with a commanding 6-4 6-4 win.
Alcaraz said: "It means a lot to have my name on the trophy. It was special to play here where so many legends have won. To see my name surrounded by the great champions is amazing.
"I started the tournament not very well, especially my movement on the grass, but it's been an amazing week."
In baking temperatures, it was only Alcaraz's third tournament on grass, but the way he marched through the draw augurs well for his prospects at Wimbledon where he will be top seed.
A break of serve in each set proved enough to overcome Australian No 1 De Minaur, who competed well but had no answer to the pace and power of the favourite.
For example when De Minaur, 24, created the match's first break point, at 4-3 in the opener, Alcaraz simply rolled out a 137mph ace.
A high-quality first set swung the way of the top seed when De Minaur sent a backhand wide, and then a forehand long, to gift Alcaraz the break.
The youngster from Murcia wrapped up the 49-minute set with an ace before taking a medical time-out for treatment on his right thigh.
Right now I'm feeling better than the beginning of the week, that's obvious.
Whatever the issue was, it did not seem to bother Alcaraz too much as he forced another break point at 2-2 in the second - and De Minaur picked the worst possible time to throw in a first double fault.
Victory was confirmed when De Minaur's return floated long and Alcaraz celebrated an 11th career title, and surely the first of many on the lawns of London.
In his first match at Queen's he needed a third-set tie-break to get past French journeyman Arthur Rinderknech, but as the week wore on he grew in confidence on the surface and by Sunday looked to the manor born.
"I had no expectations," said Alcaraz. "But you know, if I have no expectation, I'm gonna win it.
"But honestly, I have a lot of confidence right now coming into Wimbledon. I ended the week playing at the high level. So right now I feel one of the favourites to win Wimbledon.
"I have to get more experience on grass. Even if I win the title, I just played 11 matches in my career on grass, so I have to get more experience, more hours.
"But obviously after beating amazing guys, great players, and the level that I played, I consider myself one of the favourites or one of the players to be able to win Wimbledon.
"I saw a statistic that Novak has won more matches in Wimbledon than the other top 20 players [put together]. What can I say about that, you know? I mean, Novak is the main favourite to win Wimbledon. That's obvious.
"But I will try to play at this level, to have chances to beat him or make the final at Wimbledon."
De Minaur had been hoping to match his British girlfriend Katie Boulter, who won a first career title in Nottingham last weekend, but he just came up short.
He said: "It's been a great week for me. We were close but I wasn't quite able to get it done. Too good from Carlos."
Alexander Bublik battled his way past third seed Andrey Rublev 6-3 3-6 6-3 thanks to two service breaks to win the Halle Open title.
It was also the 26-year-old's second tour title after his win in Montpellier in 2022.
