On a day of hot heads and high emotion, Carlos Alcaraz proved once again to be a master of escapology in the longest match at Queen’s Club for 34 years. With temperatures hovering over 30C on Andy Murray Arena, the Spaniard was 4-2 down in the final set, having lost four games in a row. To add to his sense of peril and woe, his serve was also misfiring and he had just hit his 50th unforced error. Yet he found a way – just as he had during the French Open final earlier this month.
A few minutes – and a series of inspired winners – later Alcaraz was shaking hands with his compatriot Jaume Munar having won 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-5 in an epic that lasted a little under three hours and 30 minutes. It was the longest match at Queen’s Club since MaliVai Washington faced Mark Keil in 1991, with the second set alone taking an hour and 42 minutes. As Alcaraz pithily wrote on the BBC TV courtside camera: “Were we on clay?”
The fact Munar was able to hit a barrage of 135mph howitzers on serve told you we were on the green stuff, but nothing else about this match made sense.
Alcaraz double-faulted on match point when he had a chance to win in straight sets. His serve was patchy. And while there were the usual moments of genius, this was a day of struggle and strife. However, Munar, the world No 59, was magnificent. Having lost his serve early in the first set after serving three double faults in a row, he happily traded blows from the back of the court and showed granite resolve under pressure.
Meanwhile, Alcaraz took out his frustration on his coach Samuel López and complained to the umpire after a time violation as the heat and his opponent’s play got to him.
“It was a really tough battle, Alcaraz said. “I struggled a lot mentally and physically. I still don’t know how I am standing here but I am really proud to have given myself another chance in the quarter-finals.”
This was his 15 consecutive victory, his longest winning streak in his career but Alcaraz said that even he did not know how he was able to turn the match around. “I just kept fighting, I guess. I didn’t give up. I tried to fight and play my best on the return of the serve. But I still don’t know.”
Earlier, the Frenchman Corentin Moutet lost his temper and his last 16 match to Britain’s Jacob Fearnley. This time last year, few outside tennis circles would have heard of Fearnley, a 23-year-old from Worcester. But he steadily climbed into the world’s top 50, on the back of a big forehand and thoroughly deserved his 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 win which puts him into an ATP Tour quarter-final for the first time in his career.
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However, the match will largely be remembered for Moutet ranting at the umpire after being given two time violations in the third set – as well as a code violation for ball abuse. “I am running every day for three hours and you are telling me what I have to do,” he told the umpire. “I explain it to you and you give me a time violation without listening to me. Oh my God! This guy’s crazy. Killing me. You’re killing me every day.”
Katie Boulter survived a real scare against compatriot Sonay Kartal to maintain her hopes of winning a third successive Nottingham Open title. Boulter, who was replaced this week as British No 1 by Emma Raducanu, won her maiden WTA Tour title in Nottingham two years ago and backed it up last summer.
She extended her winning run in Nottingham to 12 matches with a 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 victory against Kartal, the British No 3. Boulter trailed 4-2 in the deciding set and had to save a break point to avoid going a double break behind, with the eighth seed struggling in the heat and consulting the doctor. But she rallied impressively to make it through to a quarter-final against the American McCartney Kessler.
