Carlos Alcaraz suffered a lot on his debut at Queen’s, the transition to grass always difficult, but yesterday, in the round of 16 of the London tournament, the Spaniard offered his usual direct and solid tennis to knock down Jiri Lehecka (21) with solvency (6-2 and 6-3).
Unlike the duel against Rinderknech, where the Murcian was erratic and uncomfortable, against the Czech he showed off his forehand, moved quickly, always comfortable with the blows, and improved with the rest, a key virtue on grass. “I am happy with the level. Now the expectations change”, he said after reaching the first quarters on grass of his career.
The improvement of the Ferrero disciple was noticeable from the start, with a break in the second game. Alcaraz continued to press Lehecka, 36 in the world, who was never at ease with the serve. The one from El Palmar, on the other hand, did not concede any break opportunities in a first set that closed with a great pass when the Czech served to stay alive in the set.
He repeated the script and broke serve at the start with three winners, a powerful forehand and two points in the rest. Alcaraz only suffered in the fifth game, when Lehecka had his only three break points, but the Murcia player solved the small rebellion without any problems and put the straight in the quarters, where Dimitrov awaits today.
