Alcaraz sails into Queen’s Club quarters, Fritz exits

Top seed Carlos Alcaraz cruised into the quarter-finals of the Queen’s Club Championships after he beat Jiri Lehecka 6-2 6-3 on Thursday but third seed Taylor Fritz was knocked out by Adrian Mannarino.Alcaraz is playing on grass for the first time this week since his fourth-round exit at Wimbledon last year and he is slowly getting to grips with the unfamiliar, faster surface."I’m happy with the level I played today... I had a really solid match. I’m feeling really comfortable here on grass, getting experience and hours on grass,” world number two Alcaraz said yesterday."Your expectations change when you’re playing your first quarter-final (on grass), I’m enjoying every single second and I go into the next round with confidence.”Under sunny skies, Alcaraz raced away into a 3-0 lead in the opening set despite taking a tumble and losing his racket when his Czech opponent fired a winner and eventually got on the board.But Alcaraz was back on his feet and dusted himself off before quickly pulling away, sealing the first set with an audacious cross-court backhand winner that whizzed past Lehecka as the Czech approached the net and landed right on the line.Alcaraz carried that momentum into the second set as Lehecka struggled to read his low groundstrokes while the Spaniard also saved three break points to go 4-1 up.By then the writing was on the wall and although Lehecka valiantly managed to hold serve, Alcaraz sealed the win on his third match point when the Czech’s return went long.Fritz’s preparations for Wimbledon took a hit when the American went down in straight sets to Mannarino, the Frenchman winning 6-4 7-6(7) to move into the quarter-finals.It was a second victory over a top-10 player for Mannarino in as many weeks having beaten Daniil Medvedev in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.Mannarino will face Australia’s Alex de Minaur who swept Diego Schwartzman aside with an emphatic 6-2 6-2 victory, breaking the Argentine six times and wrapping up the contest in just 65 minutes.Sinner overhauls Sonegoin HalleJannik Sinner is digging deep on the Halle grass at the Terra Wortmann Open.The fourth seed held off the powerful Lorenzo Sonego yesterday for a 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 second-round triumph at the ATP 500.Sinner saved all eight break points he faced in an intriguing two-hour, 52-minute encounter inside OWL Arena to reach his ninth tour-level quarter-final of the year."It was a tough match for sure,” said Sinner after the match. "He had a lot of chances, me also in the first set. I made a couple of mistakes in the tie-break but that can happen. On grass courts it’s never easy, and the way I reacted, especially mentally, I guess I did a good job. Obviously playing against him is never easy.”Sonego deployed his big serving and aggressive groundstrokes to great effect to claim the first-set tie-break and threaten an upset of his higher-ranked countryman. However, Sinner’s high-class movement around the court helped him notch crucial breaks mid-way through both the second and third sets as he completed a comeback win and improved to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Sonego.It was the second three-set win in a row on event debut for Sinner, who was pushed the distance by Richard Gasquet in his opening match. The 21-year-old will next play Alexander Bublik, and he is not concerned about the fact he has spent more than five hours on court for his opening two wins. "(I’ve played a lot of hours for) these couple of matches but it’s better,” said Sinner, who reached his first tour-level quarter-final on grass in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last week. "I can touch more balls on the grass courts and hopefully it can give me a lot of confidence.”Bublik booked his spot in the last eight with a 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 victory against home favourite Jan-Lennard Struff. The Kazakhstani powered 43 winners, including 23 aces in an outstanding serving performance, as he advanced to his second tour-level quarter-final of the season.