Carlos Alcaraz avoided another horror at the Queen’s Club ATP 500 event.
Wimbledon champion Alcaraz struggled three hours to keep the heat down on Thursday, passing Spaniard Jammuhnar on Titanic scraps, and then admitted he didn’t know if he was still standing.
It was much easier for the unseeded linder neck. He was also the player he hit beat in the opening match two years ago when he won the title at the famous Wimbledon warm-up event in West London.
The 22-year-old converted each of his two breakpoints as he extended the winning sequence of the match to a career long 16.
“I could be better (physically) and honestly, I thought I would feel much worse than I did today,” the five-time Grand Slam champion told the court.
“Today was just 1 hour and 20 minutes.”
Alcaraz will face another Spaniard in the semi-finals after Roberto Bautista Agutt defeated the fourth seed Holga Rune 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-2.
Rune was unable to force a single breakpoint, but saved 12 of 12 of 14 people, taking Bautista Ajdut into the decision set, and the Spaniards eventually broke twice.
British Jack Draper continued his Wimbledon accumulation as he reached the semi-finals for the first time at Queens with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 defeat by American Brandon Nakashima.
Not only is Draper on his way to the prestigious ATP 500 title, he also secures a victory that guarantees a top-four seed at Wimbledon, where he will become a big home hope.
While ranked fourth, Draper means avoiding either defending champion Alcaraz or world number one Janik Thinner until the semi-finals at Wimbledon, but Draper shrugged the importance of it when asked about it.
“I kept asking about it from journalists, but I have to first get to the semi-finals,” he said.
“But it’s an incredible position. I was ranked 40th at Wimbledon last year, so I’ll go there to go there to get there, as the fourth species is a testament to all the hard work my team has done.
This report uses information from Reuters.