Carlos Alcaraz will meet Alex de Minaur in the Queen’s final for the chance to win his maiden grass title and reclaim his world number one ranking ahead of Wimbledon.
Alcaraz, the first seed from Spain, defeated American Sebastian Korda. 6-3 6-4.
Earlier on the day, De Minaur defeated Danish second seed Holger Rune 6-3 7-6 (7-2).
A victory in London would vault Alcaraz above Novak Djokovic in the rankings and make him the top seed for Wimbledon, which begins on July 3.
“I didn’t know at the start of the week that a good result would put me number one, but in the press conference yesterday they told me and I thought ‘oh my god – it’s in my mind, I’m going to go for it,'” Alcaraz said after defeating Korda.
Lifting the Queen’s trophy would be quite an accomplishment for someone who is just playing their third tournament on grass, with this being the Spaniard’s maiden final on the surface.
“I’m getting better, feeling better with each match, and right now I feel like I’ve been playing on grass for ten years,” Alcaraz remarked.
“I didn’t expect to adapt my movement and game so quickly on grass, and I’m very pleased with that.”
Since dropping the first set in the first round, Alcaraz has looked sharp at the event, breaking Korda’s service twice in the first set on Saturday, making only one unforced error to build a commanding lead.
He took an early break lead in the second and went on to win over the London audience by hitting three brilliant returns over 90mph to break Korda for the second time and serve out the match.
