The ruthless qualifier stage of the Queen’s Club Championships ended yesterday and the first round kicked off today. In action today, were the 3rd, and 7th seed alongside other top players in tight clashes.
British tennis legend, Andy Murray, who has won the Queen’s Club title a record six times (once in the doubles category, and five times in the singles), is slated to face the talented Australian Alexei Popyrin in his first-round clash tomorrow. The defending champion, who’s also the just concluded French Open champion, Carlos Alcaraz, will clash with Francisco Cerundolo tomorrow.
Grigor Dimitrov Enters Second Round
The Queen’s Club 3rd seed, Bulgarian No. 1, and world No. 10, Grigor Dimitrov, started the day against Adrian Mannarino at the Centre Court. The Bulgarian attained near perfection on his first serves in the first set, winning nine of 10 points, five of which came from aces.
He didn’t face a single breakpoint from his French opponent but converted twice to win the first set 6-1. The dominance continued in the second set, with Dimitrov with the Bulgarian in ruthless serving fashion again.
Grigor Dimitrov won 10 of 12 first serves with seven of them from aces. He also won 17 points from winners. He didn’t face a single breakpoint from Mannarino in the second set but broke the Frenchman twice to win the second set 6-2 and advance to the Queen’s Club second round.
Holger Rune Suffers Early Upset
The first upset of the Queen’s Club Championships occurred in the Holger Rune Vs Jordan Thompson matchup. The Australian, ranked at No. 43 on the ATP rankings, defeated the 7th seed in three sets.
The young Dane started his Queen’s Club contest impressively, winning two-thirds of his points on serve, including a breakpoint en route to a 6-4 first-set win. Thompson stepped up his game in the second set against Rune, dragging the world No. 15 to a tiebreak which he won to tie the match.
Thompson then turned up the heat on Rune in the third set and after outserving the Dane and breaking his serve, he went on to extinguish Rune’s hopes of a Queen’s Club title with a 6-3 deciding set win. His outstanding service restricted Rune to zero third-set breakpoint opportunities.
Other Queen’s Club Day 1 Results
Rinky Hijikata overcame Frances Tiafoe in the first round stage of the Queen’s Club Championships in another upset case. The entire match was plagued with double faults from both players, with each player faltering six times.
After a first-set loss of 5-7, Tiafoe came back in the second set to win 6-4. He unfortunately had to retire in the third set to gift his Australian opponent a walkover.
Milos Raonic, former world No. 3, entered the Queen’s Club with a protected ranking, paired to face former British No. 1, Cameron Norrie. Cameron Norrie took the first set of their first-round tie after a tiebreak even though Raonic largely dominated the set.
Raonic then outserved the Brit in the second set, seizing on a breakpoint and 23 winners to take the second set 6-3. Raonic also hit 18 aces and 26 winners in the third set, 11 and 10 more than Cameron Norrie managed, to defeat the Brit in a third-set tiebreak.
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Ebenezer has been an avid writer for over a decade and a half. Within that period, he has garnered experience in various fields such as editing, graphics design, transcribing, sales, data analysis, and football management. He’s also the author of the mystery thriller novel “The Eye of Ra.” For more articles by Ebenezer Ugorji, click here and here!
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