A tantalising glimpse of a future men’s tennis rivalry ended with Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime beating Stefanos Tsitsipas to become the youngest player in 20 years to reach the semi-finals of the Queen’s Club championships on Friday, reports Reuters.
The 18-year-old continued a remarkable year with 7-5 6-2 defeat of the floppy-haired Greek who most believe is the most likely of the new generation to start winning Grand Slams.
He is the youngest player to reach the semis at the prestigious Wimbledon warm-up tournament since Lleyton Hewitt, also 18 in 1999. Given the way he has taken to the London lawns, it would be no surprise if he emulated Boris Becker who famously won the title as a 17-year-old in 1985.
Blocking his path next will be 37-year-old Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, the 2017 Queen’s champion, who prevented an all-Canadian semi-final by beating Milos Raonic 4-6 6-4 7-6(5). In the other side of the draw fourth seed Daniil Medvedev became the first Russian to reach the semi-finals of the tournament in the professional era as he had too much firepower for Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman.
Medvedev, 23, used his skidding ground strokes to great effect in a 6-2 6-2 win. He will play Frenchmen Gilles Simon who beat compatriot Nicolas Mahut 7-6(5) 5-7 7-6(3) in a match lasting three hours 20 minutes.
“It’s great to be the first Russian to be in the semi-finals and a bit surprising, maybe it’s the first time I made history! Now I want to put the bar a bit higher,” Medvedev, who is at a career-high 13 in the rankings, said.
