Tennis
Grass Season
QUEEN’S CLUB, LONDON — Carlos Alcaraz made good on his “Grasscaraz” epithet Sunday, beating Jiří Lehečka 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-2 to win his second Queen’s title.
Lehečka threatened to make Alcaraz’s life difficult with a surge toward the end of the second and the start of the third sets, picking Alcaraz’s serve more easily and hitting testing returns to his ankles. It earned him the right to take the match to a decider, and he started the third set as he ended the second, picking the Alcaraz wide serve to his forehand that had been his undoing earlier in the match and putting in more testing returns. But the Spaniard, who had served strongly throughout with 18 aces in all, found his range again, hitting the center and side lines with regularity.
Then he found his range on return, making two forehand chips that pulled Lehečka forward, the Czech missing a drop shot on the first to give Alcaraz two break points. Lehečka saved one with a brave backhand from well inside the service box, but then Alcaraz switched the pattern, driving a flat backhand deep to the middle that the Czech could only send into the net.
