By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, June 20, 2019
Top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas will face 18-year-old Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime for a Queen's Club semifinal spot.
Photo credit: @QueensTennis
The Queen's Club grass was a slippery slope for seeds and a launching pad for Stefanos Tsitsipas.
On a day of upsets that saw Grand Slam champions Marin Cilic and Stan Wawrinka both bounced from the field, Tsitsipas teetered on the tie break ledge of loss and twisted into the Fever-Tree Championships quarterfinals.
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The top-seeded Tsitsipas rallied past grass-court threat Jeremy Chardy, 4-6, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (4) to reach the last eight in his Queen's Club debut.
A 2018 Queen's Club semifinalist, Chardy served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but Tsitsipas broke at 30 to level.
In the ensuing game, Chardy ratcheted up the pressure on the Australian Open semifinalist again, but Tsitsipas fought off four break points rallying from a 15-40 deficit to hold for 6-5.
The sixth-ranked Greek played some of his most dynamic tennis streaking through the second-set tie breaker.
The final set saw fierce momentum shifts as Tsitsipas broke for 2-1 only to see Chardy break back and level at 4-all. That sparked a run of three straight service breaks. Tsitsipas served for the quarterfinals at 5-4, but could not finish this fight.
Playing with poise and aggression in the final tie breaker, Tsitsipas earned the crucial mini-break for 5-3 running off three of the final four points to fend off Chardy in two hours, 38 minutes.
It was Tsitsipas' second win of the day. He opened play completing a 6-3, 7-5 conquest of Kyle Edmund in a match that was suspended by rain on Wednesday night with Tsitsipas up 6-3, 3-3.
The 20-year-old Tsitsipas raised his record to an ATP-best 34-13. Continuing his quest for his third title this season, Tsitsipas takes on Felix Auger-Aliassime in a blockbuster battle of NextGen stars.
The eighth-seeded Auger-Aliassime scored a pair of victories defeating 2014 Queen's Club champion Grigor Dimitrov in his first match then returning to court to edge 2018 semifinalist Nick Kyrgios, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 7-5 and become the youngest Queen's Club quarterfinalist in 12 years.
Auger-Aliassime belted a backhand pass by Kyrgios to clinch the lone service break of the match and a gritty victory.
Empowered by his run to the Stuttgart final last week, the 18-year-old Canadian cracked 19 aces and did not face a break point in a two-hour, 13-minute victory.
A three-time ATP finalist this season, Auger-Aliassime swept Tsitsipas, 6-4, 6-2, in their lone 2019 meeting at Indian Wells in March.
Diego Schwartzman won the key backhand-to-backhand exchanges and broke serve three times toppling defending champion Marin Cilic, 6-4, 6-4.
Schwartzman plays fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals. The lanky Russian repelled Lucas Pouille, 7-6 (9), 6-7 (5), 6-4.
French serve-and-vollyer Nicolas Mahut surprised seventh-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (2) in a gripping two hour, 10 minute triumph to secure a quarterfinal spot.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka led by a set and 5-3 before Mahut turned the match around withstanding 18 aces from the sturdy Swiss.
The 37-year-old Mahut, a 2007 Queen's Club finalist, will face fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon for a place in the final four.
Simon stopped 2018 Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, on the strength of four service breaks. Simon is playing for his fourth semifinal of the season and first Queen's Club semifinal in four years.