Inaugural day of the Queen’s Club Championships, ATP 500 which takes place on the grass courts of the Queen’s Club in London. In the first round of meetings the first surprises were recorded, such as premature defeat of Rune, and pleasant confirmations, such as the good form of the Bulgarian Dimitrov, and the great performance of the Canadian Milos Raonic.
[3] G. Dimitrov b. A. Mannarino 6-1 6-2
Let’s start from Grigor Dimitrov who achieved a peremptory victory by eliminating world number 21 Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 6-2 in just 63 minutes.
A match never in question for a Dimitrov in a state of grace on serve (86% of points won with the first serve) and very solid from the baseline (28 winners compared to only 5 free errors). The Frenchman instead argued with his first ball and ended up being overwhelmed by the Bulgarian’s true tennis. For the cold record four breaks in total, two per set, they allowed the third seed to close the Mannarino practice in just over an hour of play.
“I was very happy with how I started the match. I think I’ve raised the bar and want to be consistent all the time.” Dimitrov said. “Serve and return which I just tried to focus on, are the fundamentals of this surface. As the match went on I felt more solid and more confident, so I’m very happy.”
Dimitrov has fond memories at the Queen’s Club, having won the title in 2014. The third seed will now face the winner of Sebastian Korda or Karen Khachanov.
J. Thompson b. [7] H.Rune 4-6 7-6(4) 6-3
The result of the day belongs to the Australian Jordan Thompson who beat the Dane Holger Rune 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 earning his third career grass court victory against a Top 20 player. With this victory the Australian ended a streak of five consecutive defeats.
A close fight between Thompson and Rune which saw the former triumph after two hours and six minutes. The two key stats for Thompson are 69% second serve points won (20/29) and 27 winners scored. On the other hand, the Dane, who was unable to exploit the momentum he won in the first set, also prevailed in the second. Thus the first set was decided by a single break at the end of the set, precisely at 5-4, when Rune took advantage of an empty pass from Thompson on serve.
In the second half there is balance, only two break points in the entire set not exploited by the Australian which lead to the tie-break. Thompson takes the lead 3-0, is put back by Rune to make it 3-4, but then he loses two consecutive serves which cost him the set. In the third everything was decided immediately, when Thompon broke the balance in the second game and then expertly managed the advantage until the final 6-3.
Thompson will next play either five-time champion Andy Murray or Australian qualifier Alexei Popyrin.
M. Raonic b. C. Norrie 6-7(6) 6-3 7-6(9) (Lorenzo Celenza)
Records are made to be broken. Surely Milos Raonic before the match against Norrie he was not aware that he would sign such an important record. The Canadian tennis player he managed to score 47 aces in a best-of-three sets match. Before him, only Ivo Karlovic had managed it in the match in Halle in 2015 against Berdych. On that occasion, the Croatian reached 45. What made it all even more significant was beat the host Norrienumber 39 in the world, 6-7(6) 6-3 7-6(9). The match lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes and it was immediately clear that it would be very balanced. It took two tie-breaks to decide the winner and Raonic himself came out on top. Norrie twice he had the match pointbut the Canadian he was good at first exploiting a measurement error and then with a winning forehand he closed the games.
THE OTHER MATCHES – Rinky Hijikata advanced after Frances Tiafoe she was forced to retire in the third set due to a right hip injury. Hijikata led against the American to 7-5, 4-6, 1-0. The Australian qualifier will meet Ugo Humbert or Matteo Arnaldi in the second round.
