Carlos Alcaraz adjusts his Wimbledon expectations after Queen’s outing

James Richardson 23 Jun 2023 11:58 AM

Carlos Alcaraz celebrates

Carlos Alcaraz appears to have gained confidence on grass thanks to a couple of impressive outings at the Queen’s Club in Kensington.

Alcaraz put away tricky Czech NextGen star Jiri Lehecka to claim successive victories on his weakest surface and he could even arrive at Wimbledon with his swagger reinstated.

The young US Open champion was humbled just a little in the French Open final and was cautious about his prospects of doing well on the grass swing.

His clinical victory over Lehecka has gone a long way towards giving him the feel for play on grass.

“After this match, this level, the expectations change,” Alcaraz said after the match.

“I think I’m ready to do great results here on grass.

“Playing my first quarter-final here, I’m going to enjoy it. I’m enjoying every single second here, and of course I will go into the next round with a lot of confidence and I will go for it.

“Playing these kind of matches, the level that I played – I’m ok with that.

“I feel really comfortable here on grass so I’m really happy getting experience on grass, getting hours. Knowing that I have this level, I’m really happy about it.”

Alcaraz stated he was most worried about his mobility on grass after defeating Arthur Rinderknech in the first round. He said that he had been drawing inspiration from some legendary performances on the lawn.

With some fantastic strokes during his victory over Lehecka, that appears to be paying off.

“I’ve always said that you have to move well on grass and from there everything else follows,” Alcaraz said.

“Speaking for myself, I like to put on videos of [Roger] Federer, of [Andy] Murray, who are among the players that move best on grass. I’m not going to talk about [Novak] Djokovic because he slides like he’s on clay and that’s not going to be the case for me.

“It’s not about how they strike the ball, because everyone has their own style, but seeing how they move, and trying to imitate them.”

Alcaraz will face another great test of his movement when he takes on energetic Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight at Queen’s.

Dimitrov is yet to take a set off Alcaraz having lost both their previous meetings in straight sets.

Alcaraz beat Dimitrov on his way to securing back-to-back Madrid Masters titles but this will be the first meeting between the two players on grass.