tennis

The German player overcame defending champion Tsitsipas of Greece 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the grass-court ATP 250 event in Spain’s Balearic Islands for the biggest win of his career on Wednesday night. Hanfmann won 80 per cent (36/45) of points behind his first serve in a rock-solid performance to reach his first non-clay ATP Tour quarterfinal.

Jabeur picked up her second win in two meetings with 42nd-ranked Paolini, and she moved into the Eastbourne second round for the third time in her career. The Tunisian started her 2023 grass season last week in Berlin, where she suffered an opening-round loss to Jule Niemeier as the defending champion.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova won her 31st WTA Tour title last week in Berlin. She had been scheduled to play Jelena Ostapenko in the first round in a rematch of the 2022 final. Ostapenko, who won her sixth career title last week in Birmingham, will instead play lucky loser Czech player Barbora Strycova.

Alcaraz put in a dominant display to beat world No.18 Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4 to clinch his first title on grass. The win marks the Spaniard's fifth title of the season so far - adding to his trophies in Indian Wells, Madrid, Barcelona and Buenos Aires. With this trophy comes even bigger achievements for the 20-year-old, as he regained his position at the top of the world rankings to enter the upcoming Wimbledon Championships as the first seed.

On Saturday, the 20-year old Alcaraz was broken in the opening game, but held his nerve to break back right away before breaking again in the eighth game and won the first set 6-3, Xinhua reported. The top seed at the ATP 500 event seemed more confident in the second set.

The Spaniard has undoubtedly been a dominant force on both the hard and clay courts over the past 18 months, having clinched seven of his 10 ATP titles on the clay and the remaining three on hard courts. But his experience on the grass lays thin, having only played eight matches on the surface in his young career.

Rublev delivered a solid display to hold off the World No. 53 Hanfmann, winning 7-6(5), 6-3 at the grass-court ATP 500 event. With this win, Rublev improves his record in Halle to 8-3. Home favorite Hanfmann had led 5/3 in the first-set tie-break but was unable to push on and forge a repeat of his victory in the pair's fourth-round meeting last month at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome.

"I'm really happy with the level that I played today. Jiri is a great opponent, great shots," the Spaniard said in his on-court interview. "He has a great game on grass. I'm really happy with the level. I think I had a really solid match. I played my game, I enjoyed playing here and I'm really happy with my first quarter-final here in Queen's," he added.

In 2 hours and 14 minutes, World No. 23 Vekic ended the reigning Wimbledon champion's nine-match unbeaten run, as well as her eight-match winning streak on grass. But the Croatian is a capable grass-courter herself, and she is now through to her sixth career WTA Tour quarterfinal on the surface.

The 22-year-old, Iga Swiatek who won the Wimbledon junior title in 2018, has limited experience on grass, which is evident in her modest 6-5 win-loss record on the surface in main draw matches at the tour level. Her best Wimbledon result was a fourth-round showing in 2021.