Alex de Minaur reached his second tour-level final of the season on Saturday when he defeated second seed Holger Rune 6-3, 7-6(2) at the Cinch Championships in London.

The Australian has a strong record on grass, winning the title in Eastbourne in 2021 and advancing to the fourth round at Wimbledon last year. He demonstrated his pedigree on the surface once again in his semi-final clash against the Dane, moving well and committing just nine unforced errors to advance after one hour and 40 minutes.

“I love being here and playing on this court in front of this amazing crowd,” de Minaur said. “I am very happy to get through. I have played decent on grass and I am having a good week and this was my best performance of the week.”

De Minaur now holds a 12-2 record at ATP 500 events this season, having captured this biggest title of his career in Acapulco in February. The World No. 18, who defeated former World No. 1 Andy Murray in the first round, will chase his eighth tour-level title on Sunday when he meets Carlos Alcaraz or Sebastian Korda.

Rune arrived in London having never earned a tour-level grass-court win. The 20-year-old found his range on the surface this week, though, defeating Maxime Cressy, Ryan Peniston and Lorenzo Musetti to reach his sixth semi-final of the year.

Former finalist Andrey Rublev blasted past Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday to reach the Terra Wortmann Open title match once again.

The third seed, who fell against Ugo Humbert in the championship match in Halle in 2021, was locked in from ball one, using his flat groundstrokes to dictate. He demonstrated great footwork to attack on his forehand, striking 29 winners to overpower the Spaniard.

With his one-hour, 42-minute win, Rublev set a final meeting against Alexander Bublik on Sunday, when he will chase his second tour-level title of the season (Monte-Carlo).

If Rublev lifts his 14th tour-level trophy, he will have captured an ATP 500 title on grass, clay and hard courts.

Bublik moved to within one win of capturing his first grass-court tour-level title when he defeated home favourite Alexander Zverev 6-3, 7-5.

The 25-year-old produced a strong serving performance at the ATP 500 event, firing 14 aces and winning 94 per cent (32/34) of points behind his first delivery to advance against the German after 88 minutes.

“The job is not finished, there is one last match,” Bublik said. “I am happy but I try to stay focused. I tried to play my game and i am really happy with the win today. Playing Sascha is really tough and I was a bit lucky in the key moments. When you play against a top player like Sascha, you need all the weapons to work.”

With his win, Bublik improved to 3-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Zverev. Bublik lifted his only tour-level trophy in Montpellier in 2022, but will have the chance to add to his trophy haul when he meets Rublev.

Bublik is up 15 spots to No. 33 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings following his run to the final in Halle, where he has also defeated Jannik Sinner and Jan-Lennard Struff. Bublik has often found his best level on grass, reaching title matches on the surface in Newport in 2019 and 2022.

In the first look at Season 1, Part 2 of Netflix’s Break Point, the focus turned to Serena Williams. As several of the show’s personalities said the American legend’s name, Patrick Mouratoglou asked, “Who?”

The Frenchman was joking, of course. Mouratoglou was Williams’ longtime coach. In Break Point, however, he dished on far more than his former charge.

ATPTour.com looks at the best Mouratoglou moments from the Netflix series.

Patrick Dishes On Nick
The first two episodes of the batch focused on Wimbledon, with a lot of time spent on Nick Kyrgios and his breakthrough run to the final. The Australian’s talent has never been questioned, but could he put it together on the sport’s biggest stages?

“All his career so far, Nick has said, ‘I’m not practising, don’t expect anything from me’, because acting that way can just take away the pressure,” Mouratoglou said. “But now he realises that he can maybe win a major. If he starts to work, starts to be ambitious, the pressure suddenly takes him.”

Mouratoglou also said of Kyrgios: “This job is about dealing with pressure at the highest level. So if Nick wants to become a top champion and win Grand Slams, he will have to learn to deal with it, which is something he has never done before.”

High Praise For Novak
Kyrgios eventually met his match in the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic, who won his seventh title at SW19.

Mouratoglou said of the Serbian: “Beating Novak at Wimbledon is probably the highest mountain to climb for any tennis player.”

Mouratoglou Helps Explain Tsitsipas
The drama of episodes six and seven revolved around the third-round Wimbledon clash between Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Mouratoglou knows the Greek well having helped coach him over the years.
“Stef is an incredible player — I mean, he played a final of a Grand Slam,” Mouratoglou said. “And he is the model of professionalism. He is super aggressive in terms of wanting to dictate and be the boss on the court.”

As the story of the match unfolded, the tension levels were high.

“Stef is a fierce fighter and his emotional state is very high,” Mouratoglou said. “If he keeps it here, he’s super dangerous. If it goes too high, it plays against him.”

Patrick Succinctly Captures Tiafoe’s Story
Break Point helped viewers get to know Frances Tiafoe. His parents, from Sierra Leone, moved to the United States. His mother was a nurse who worked multiple jobs and his father was a maintenance worker at a tennis centre. Tiafoe sometimes slept in his father’s office and was able to play tennis for free.

Fast forward and the American was making a dream run at the US Open, where he upset Rafael Nadal en route to the semi-finals, captivating the New York crowd along the way.

Mouratoglou said of Tiafoe: “He’s one of the most incredible stories in our sport. Frances represents better than anyone the American dream.”

The highs in tennis can be incredible and the lows can be crushing. That was clearly shown in Episode 8 of Break Point.

Ajla Tomljanovic suffered a devastating defeat in Episode 7, when she let slip her lead against eventual champion Elena Rybakina at Wimbledon. The Australian was so close to glory and yet so far.

But part of the beauty of professional tennis is that there is always the next tournament. It did not take long for Tomljanovic to earn her shot at redemption. The hustle and bustle of the US Open proved the perfect setting for her moment in the spotlight.

The legendary Serena Williams was poised to “evolve” away from tennis at the final major of the season. That became the focus of the tournament.

“If she’s playing her best, no one can beat her,” Tomljanovic said.

Watch Episode 8 Trailer:

Little did Tomljanovic know she would be in line to stop the American’s hopes of a dream run.

Andy Roddick said of Williams: “Serena puts on a show and has the crowd in the palm of her hand. She’s potentially the most intimidating player in history.”

Tomljanovic made it clear Williams was the reason she dreamed as a kid. Her father was a professional handball player in Croatia, but their family moved to the United States to help Ajla pursue her dreams.

Now she was set to stand across the net from Williams inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The tremendous Break Point access paid dividends in footage of Tomljanovic FaceTiming with her cousin’s boyfriend, Felix Auger-Aliassime, who had been upset earlier in the tournament.

“You got this girl,” the Canadian said after providing his advice.

What does it look like before playing the biggest match of your life? Tomljanovic was at dinner with family and friends. Inevitably, the topic of Ajla facing her idol came up. Her father injected humour into the conversation when he joked of the upcoming match, “Hey guys, we are f***ed!”

Back in her hotel room, Tomljanovic received a call from Chris Evert, who said, “You’ve got to show some balls out there”. Ajla had a book on her bedside table titled You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero.

Tomljanovic withstood the pressure to stun Williams and end the legend’s final US Open. It was a moment she worked towards her whole life and the Australian rose to the occasion.

Taylor Fritz carried the weight of the world on his shoulders leading into the US Open, where he hoped to capture his first major title.

“No one really cares if you’re like five in the world in tennis,” said Fritz, explaining the importance of the majors.

The American and his girlfriend Morgan Riddle were in the car on the way to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for Fritz’s first-round match against Brandon Holt. Riddle picked up on potential nerves, which Fritz denied having.

But from feeling he was a title contender one moment, Fritz was out of the draw the next. He suffered a backbreaking defeat in the opening round. After the match, the American had a frustrated debrief in the locker room with coach Michael Russell and then shared an emotional moment with his family, including an extended embrace with his father.

Fritz said: “I really felt like I let myself down and I let a lot of people down.”

Taylor Fritz and Jiri Lehecka earned the most emphatic win of their run at the Cinch Championships on Friday to reach the final at The Queen’s Club in London.

After scoring their first two victories via Match Tie-breaks, the unseeded American/Czech pairing knocked off top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski 6-3, 7-6(4) in the semi-finals. Fritz and Lehecka combined to hit 11 aces and saved three of the four break points against them in the win, while breaking twice on five chances.

Both Fritz and Lehecka are seeking their first tour-level doubles title, with only Fritz having previously played in a final. The American twice finished runner-up, in Basel with Reilly Opelka (2019) and in Los Cabos with Thanasi Kokkinakis (2018).

The second doubles semi-final at the ATP 500 event will be contested on Saturday, when second seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek face Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Germans Otte/Struff Upset Top Seeds In Halle
Home favourites Oscar Otte and Jan-Lennard Struff advanced to the semi-finals at the Terra Wortmann Open on Friday with a 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 upset of top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer. 

Each team broke serve twice in the tightly contested match, before the Germans narrowly claimed the Match Tie-break. They will next meet Marcelo Melo and John Peers in the semi-finals on Saturday.

Italians Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli are already through to the final after their 6-3, 6-7(0), 10-7 win against Andreas Mies and Marcelo Demoliner on Friday.

Playing in a grass-court quarter-final for the first time on Friday, Carlos Alcaraz used a fast start and a strong finish to defeat Grigor Dimitrov at the Cinch Championships.

The Spaniard’s 6-4, 6-4 victory extends his edge to 3-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head and moves him to 5-4 lifetime on grass courts. With his first Top 30 win on the surface, he advances to the semi-finals for the eighth time in his nine events this season — his lone early exit coming in the Rome third round.

“The work that I put in, the matches that I played [at] a great level helped me a lot coming into this really tough match,” Alcaraz said of his development on the grass. “Grigor is a top player in every surface, but I would say even more here on grass, he feels the ball really well.

“I just played really well from the beginning until the last ball.”

Alcaraz improved to 8-0 in tour-level quarter-finals this season by winning six of the match’s final seven games after falling behind 0-3 in the second set at The Queen’s Club in London. After Dimitrov stopped a run of four straight games to break for 4-4, Alcaraz took advantage of a loose service game from the Bulgarian to storm through the finish line.

After breaking in the opening game of the match, Alcaraz did not create another break chance until he broke for 2-3 in the second. Dimitrov settled in and attacked the top seed with his all-court game, but the Spaniard landed some crucial drop shots as he began to turn the tide.

The match was poised for more drama at 4-4, but Alcaraz won eight of the last nine points to set up a semi-final showdown against Sebastian Korda. The American was a 6-4, 7-6(1), winner against home favourite Cameron Norrie earlier on Friday.

The final 4️⃣ in LONDON 🌱

Who will take the 🏆? @QueensTennis | #cinchChampionships pic.twitter.com/f6OaAFstVO

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 23, 2023

With Alcaraz and Korda joining Holger Rune and Alex de Minaur in the semi-finals, all four of the remaining players are under 25 years of age.

“It’s great to play against the young players like me,” the 20-year-old Alcaraz said when told of that statistic. “We are setting the generation and obviously we are going to play a lot of matches at such great events, great tournaments. It’ going to be really fun to play.

“Sebi, he’s a friend,” he continued, looking ahead to Saturday’s matchup. “He’s coming with great tennis. Of course I would say it’s going to be a really good match. I hope the crowd enjoys that match because it’s something special.”

The 32-year-old Dimitrov, the lone former champion in the London quarter-finals, was denied his first Top 10 win on grass since he beat Andy Murray at Wimbledon in 2014.