Alcaraz sails into Queen's Club quarters, Fritz knocked out
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[June 23, 2023]
LONDON (Reuters) - Top seed Carlos Alcaraz cruised into the
quarter-finals of the Queen's Club Championships after he beat Jiri
Lehecka 6-2 6-3 on Thursday but third seed Taylor Fritz was knocked out
by Adrian Mannarino.
Alcaraz is playing on grass for the first time this week since his
fourth-round exit at Wimbledon last year and he is slowly getting to
grips with the unfamiliar, faster surface. |
![](../images/062323PIX/sports65.jpg)
Tennis - ATP 500 - Queen's Club
Championships - Queen's Club, London, Britain - June 22, 2023 Spain's
Carlos Alcaraz celebrate after winning his round of 16 match against
Czech Republic's Jiri Lehecka Action Images via Reuters/Peter Cziborra |
"I'm happy with the level I played today... I
had a really solid match. I'm feeling really comfortable here on
grass, getting experience and hours on grass," world number two
Alcaraz said.
"Your expectations change when you're playing your first
quarter-final (on grass), I'm enjoying every single second and I
go into the next round with confidence."
Under sunny skies, Alcaraz raced away into a 3-0 lead in the
opening set despite taking a tumble and losing his racket when
his Czech opponent fired a winner and eventually got on the
board.
But Alcaraz was back on his feet and dusted himself off before
quickly pulling away, sealing the first set with an audacious
cross-court backhand winner that whizzed past Lehecka as the
Czech approached the net and landed right on the line.
Alcaraz carried that momentum into the second set as Lehecka
struggled to read his low groundstrokes while the Spaniard also
saved three break points to go 4-1 up.
By then the writing was on the wall and although Lehecka
valiantly managed to hold serve, Alcaraz sealed the win on his
third match point when the Czech's return went long.
Fritz's preparations for Wimbledon took a hit when the American
went down in straight sets to Mannarino, the Frenchman winning
6-4 7-6(7) to move into the quarter-finals.
It was a second victory over a top-10 player for Mannarino in as
many weeks having beaten Daniil Medvedev in 's-Hertogenbosch.
Mannarino will face Australia's Alex de Minaur who swept Diego
Schwartzman aside with an emphatic 6-2 6-2 victory, breaking the
Argentine six times and wrapping up the contest in just 65
minutes.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
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