Carlos Alcaraz flies into Queen's quarters with Jiri Lehecka win, Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev through in Halle

ByAlasdair Mackenzie

Updated 22/06/2023 at 21:32 GMT+1

Top seed Carlos Alcaraz put a nervy first-round performance behind him with a confident straight-sets win over Jiri Lehecka to reach the Queen's quarter-finals. Alcaraz is still finding his feet on grass but his inexperience on the surface didn't show as he dominated the Czech. Grigor Dimitrov will face Alcaraz next for a place in the semi-finals after the Bulgarian beat Francisco Cerundolo.

Carlos Alcaraz produced a dazzling performance to flatten Jiri Lehecka 6-2 6-3 and move into the Queen’s quarter-finals.

The top seed will face Grigor Dimitrov next after a win that was far more convincing than his nervy three-set victory over Arthur Rinderknech in the first round.

Alcaraz is making his Queen’s debut this year and is relatively new to grass-court tennis, with two previous outings at Wimbledon being the extent of his tour-level experience on the surface.

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But he showed few signs of weakness as he brushed aside the world No. 36 in 85 minutes, landing three aces and 21 winners along the way.

“I feel really comfortable here and I’m really happy to get experience on grass, getting hours. Now that I know I have this level, I’m very happy about it," said Alcaraz.

“After this match, this level, the expectations change. I think I’m going to do great results here on grass. I will go into the next round with a lot of confidence and I will go for it.”

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Alcaraz made the dream start by holding twice and breaking Lehecka in the Czech’s first service game to go 3-0 up.

Lehecka eventually got on the board, needing to save another break point first, but he couldn’t make any progress on the Spaniard’s serve.

The Czech was left serving to stay in the set at 5-2 and threw away a 30-0 lead to concede four consecutive points and surrender the opener in 39 minutes.

The Spaniard started ultra-aggressively in the second set, holding before taking four points in a row to immediately break Lehecka, converting a stunning return winner to seal it.

Another hold made it 3-0 to the Spaniard as history repeated itself, but Lehecka held before squandering three break points in a moment that could’ve levelled up the second set but instead left him 4-1 down.

Alcaraz saw a match point come and go as Lehecka was serving to stay in the contest, but he safely served out to claim his second win in a row on the grass courts of Queen's.

'I think I'm ready' - Alcaraz feeling more confident of a good result on grass

Video credit: SNTV

"I’m really happy with the level I played [at] today. Jiri is a great opponent, he hit great shots and has a great game on grass," Alcaraz said.

"I think I had a solid match. I played my game, enjoyed playing here and I’m really happy with my first quarter-final here in Queen’s.”

Alcaraz's next opponent, qualifier Dimitrov, beat eighth seed Francisco Cerundolo 6-3 7-5.

Adrian Mannarino took down third seed Taylor Fritz 6-4 7-6 for the 10th top-10 win of his career.

Next he will face Alex de Minaur, who reached his 30th tour-level quarter-final by beating Diego Schwartzman 6-2 6-2.

In Halle, fourth seed Jannik Sinner edged an all-Italian clash with Lorenzo Sonego, winning 6-7(4) 6-4 6-4 to reach his ninth quarter-finals of the season.

Next up for Sinner is Alexander Bublik, who overcame Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3 6-7(4) 6-3.

No. 3 seed Andrey Rublev also progressed to the last eight, beating wild card Yannick Hanfmann 7-6(6) 6-3.

The result gave the Russian some revenge for his defeat to the world No. 53 in Rome in May.

"The important thing was I was able to win against a tough player like Yannick,” said Rublev.

“The last time he beat me and he’s playing better and better. Especially on grass, he’s even tougher to play against because he has such a good serve and a good game at the net. I was able to win the match in two sets so I’m really happy.”

Next up for Rublev is a meeting with Tallon Griekspoor, who took out sixth seed Hubert Hurkacz 6-3 1-6 7-6(8).

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