Top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain won his 14th consecutive match this year with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over Australian Adam Walton in the first round of the HSBC Championships on Tuesday at the Queen’s Club in London.
Alcaraz fired 33 winners and 10 aces past Walton, a late replacement for Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (illness). World No. 2 Alcaraz leads the ATP Tour with 38 wins and four titles this year, including a dramatic five-set win over No. 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy at the French Open final on June 8 and a win over Sinner in the Rome final on May 18.
French lucky loser Arthur Rinderknech claimed a battle with sixth-seeded Ben Shelton 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), and the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka ousted fifth-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia 6-4, 6-2. Second-seeded Jack Draper of Great Britian won 93 percent of his first-serve points (27 of 29) and converted 4 of 8 on break-point opportunities in beating American Jenson Brooksby 6-3, 6-1.
Other first-round winners were Americans Reilly Opelka and Brandon Nakashima, Australian Alexei Popyrin and Spain’s Jaume Munar, who was leading 7-5, 1-0 when Australian Jordan Thompson retired.
Terra Wortmann Open
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy, in his first match since losing to Alcaraz in the French Open final, defeated home favorite Yannick Hanfmann 7-5, 6-3 in the first round in Halle, Germany.
The event’s defending champion, the top-seeded Sinner won 84 percent of his first-serve points (37 of 44), pounded 10 aces and saved both break points.
Fourth-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia knocked off Austrian qualifier Sebastian Ofner 6-3, 6-4 in just over 62 minutes, and seventh-seeded Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic downed lucky loser Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. American Alex Michelsen rallied past fifth-seeded Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, and Canadian Denis Shapovalov upset sixth-seeded Ugo Humbert of France 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4).
Other first-round winners were Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Italy’s Flavio Cobolli and Lorenzo Sonego.
–Field Level Media
