Alcaraz dismisses Walton and advances to the second round of Queen's

Crowned at Roland-Garros after an epic final against Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz resumed competition this Tuesday and opened his grass season at Queen's, as usual.

Winner of this tournament in 2023, the Spaniard had experienced disappointment last year and was quickly defeated by Jack Draper. The world No. 2 was initially supposed to face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, but the latter withdrew at the last moment. Thus, it was Adam Walton, an Australian lucky loser, who was on the court to face Alcaraz.

Defeated by Aleksandar Vukic in the final round of qualifying, Walton was brought back, and he posed problems for his opponent. The turning point of the first set occurred at 3-3 when the five-time Grand Slam winner finally broke his opponent's serve after a 12-minute game.

Generally not troubled on his service games, Alcaraz nonetheless had to work in the second set and waited for the tiebreak to win in two sets (6-4, 7-6 in 1h42).

Alcaraz, two-time defending champion at Wimbledon, starts his grass season perfectly and reaches the round of 16 at Queen's. For a place in the quarterfinals, he will face the winner of the match between Jaume Munar and Jordan Thompson.