Carlos Alcaraz overcame an inspired opponent and the sweltering London heat to reach the quarterfinal at Queen’s, beating compatriot Jaume Munar 6-4, 6-7(9), 7-5 in an epic contest that lasted three hours and 23 minutes.
It was the longest match at the west London tournament, a prestigious warm-up event for Wimbledon, since 1991 and led to Alcaraz wryly writing on the camera lens after his win: “Were we on clay?”
It was far from Alcaraz’s most distinguished performances as the Spaniard struggled with his serve all match and hit a whopping 53 unforced errors.
Alcaraz could – and perhaps should – have ended the match much sooner but doubled faulted on match point when serving at 6-4 in the second-set tiebreak.
The 22-year-old, who recently won his fifth grand slam by coming from two sets down to beat Jannik Sinner in the longest French Open final in history, then had to fight back from 4-2 down in the third set, eventually sealing the win on his third match point.
“Jaume is a great competitor,” Alcaraz told the BBC. “I think you saw today how difficult it is to beat him. There were a lot of things going on in the match, but I’m just really, really happy.
“In the third set, there was a moment where I struggled a lot mentally, physically. Honestly, I still don’t know how I’m standing here, but I’m just really, really proud and happy to give myself another chance to work harder.”
Alcaraz, who extends his winning streak to a career-best 15 matches, admitted that even he didn’t know how he came through that match, a similar sentiment to the one he shared after beating Sinner in Paris.
“I just kept fighting,” Alcaraz said. “I guess I didn’t give up. Honestly, I could show that I was out mentally, but I stayed there, I tried to fight. But, as I said, I still don’t know.”
While Alcaraz is rightly considered a clay-court phenom, he is proving to be just as adept on the faster grass and now boasts a 22-1 record on the surface since 2023, per the ATP, including the Queen’s title last year and back-to-back Wimbledon triumphs.
Elsewhere, beaten French Open finalist Jannik Sinner was stunned by world No. 45 Alexander Bublik in the second round of Halle in Germany.
The Kazakh won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to end Sinner’s reign as Halle’s defending champion and earn his first career win over a world No. 1.
The shocking win caused Bublik to comment on an Instagram Reel of his win: “I got him guys.”
The post ‘I still don’t know how I’m standing’: Carlos Alcaraz comes through brutal three-and-a-half-hour epic at Queen’s Club appeared first on CNN.
