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regular-article-logo Saturday, 05 October 2024

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz continues to thrive on London grass courts in build-up to Wimbledon

20-year-old had lost his opening set at Queen’s earlier in the week, but has since looked ominously good and proved too powerful for Korda, winning 6-3, 6-4

Reuters London Published 25.06.23, 05:15 AM
Carlos Alcaraz after defeating Sebastian Korda in the semi-final in London on Saturday

Carlos Alcaraz after defeating Sebastian Korda in the semi-final in London on Saturday Reuters

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz continued to thrive on London grass courts in the build-up to Wimbledon as he beat unseeded American Sebastian Korda on Saturday to reach the Queen’s Club final.

The 20-year-old had lost his opening set at Queen’s earlier in the week, but has since looked ominously good and proved too powerful for Korda, winning 6-3, 6-4.

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In his first ATP Tour final on grass, Alcaraz will face Australian Alex de Minaur who earlier beat Danish second seed Holger Rune 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).

Should Alcaraz win Sunday’s final he would reclaim the world No.1 ranking from Novak Djokovic and would be top seeded at Wimbledon which begins on July 3.

Korda, 22, was at full stretch to try and keep Alcaraz at bay in the opening set but still dropped serve twice, although he did also manage to break the Spaniard.

Alcaraz began to unleash some heavy groundstrokes and showed plenty of grasscourt acumen despite being a relative novice on the surface.

He forged an early break ahead in the second set and never looked in danger from that point on.

Fellow 20-year-old Rune had not dropped a set on the way to the semi-finals but found the livewire De Minaur a step too far as he fell short of also reaching his first final on grass.

World No. 18 De Minaur, who put out home favourite Andy Murray earlier in the week, is aiming for his second career title on grass having won at Eastbourne in 2021.

He is the first Australian to reach the final at the Queen’s pre-Wimbledon event since Lleyton Hewitt in 2006.

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