Victory at Queen's shows Spain's Carlos Alcaraz can win on grass too

Carlos Alcaraz will go into Wimbledon as world tennis number one after victory over Álex de Miñaur at Queen's helped him to his first-ever tournament win on grass.

The Spaniard, who has now shown he is equally adept on the surface despite only playing eleven matches on it, beat the Australian 6-4 6-4 on Sunday in one hour and 39 minutes.

The outcome of the match was determined by break points. Alcaraz proved to be more opportunistic by successfully saving the two points he faced and capitalising on the two he created.

At a critical juncture in the first set, with the score tied at 4-4, Alcaraz managed to secure a break when De Miñaur sent a running forehand long.

In the second set, despite requiring some attention to his upper right leg, Alcaraz displayed no signs of physical decline as the match progressed. De Miñaur relinquished the lone break by committing a double fault, handing Alcaraz the decisive advantage.

Although the top seed fell behind 0-30 when serving for the championship, he maintained his composure and successfully completed the task at hand.

To say all this just a week ago would have seemed crazy. When Alcaraz landed in London, he, in his own words, simply wanted to "gain court time and play against great tennis players on this surface".

His expectations were far from joining Andrés Gimeno (1960), Rafael Nadal (2008) and Feliciano López (2017 and 2019) as the only Spaniards to win at the Queen's Club Championships.

And it made sense. Roger Federer needed four years to win a title on this surface, Nadal five, Novak Djokovic six (and almost fifty matches).

Now, the 20-year-old from Murcia has achieved it with just two tournaments under his belt ahead of what is expected to be an epic showdown with Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon when the London tournament kicks off on 3 July.

Not only has Alcaraz taken the number-one spot from the Serbian, he will also be the first seed at the All England Club.