Carlos Alcaraz suffered the unspeakable in his debut at Queen’s, adaptation to grass is always difficult, but this Thursday, in the round of 16 of the London tournament, the Spaniard once again offered his usual, direct and solid tennis, to knock out Jiri Lehecka ( 21) with solvency (6-2 and 6-3).
Unlike the match against Rinderknech, where the Murcian was erratic and uncomfortable, against the Czech he once again took his right for a walk, moved quickly, almost always comfortable hitting, and improved with the rest, an essential quality on the green .
“I’m very happy with today’s level. I hit some great shots. I had a very solid match. I enjoyed playing. Very happy to reach my first quarterfinal here. I’ve practiced more on grass and I’m happy gaining experience on the grass. After this game the expectations in the tournament change”, commented Alcaraz after getting into the first quarters on grass in its history.
The improvement of Ferrero’s pupil was noticeable from the start, with a break in the second game. Despite going ahead on the scoreboard, Alcaraz did not relax and pushed Lehecka, 36 in the world, who suffered to continue holding his serve. The man from El Palmar, on the other hand, did not concede a chance to break in a first set that closed with a great passing when the Czech served to stay alive in the set.
The Spaniard raised his level even more at the start of the second set. He repeated the script, breaking serve at the first exchange with three winners, a powerful forehand and two points from the rest. Alcaraz only suffered in the fifth game, at which time Lehecka had his only three break points, but the Murcian solved the small rebellion without problems and went straight to the quarterfinals, where the Bulgarian Dimitrov awaits him.
