Queen’s Club: Carlos Alcaraz extends win streak onto grass with Adam Walton victory

Carlos Alcaraz made a seamless transition from clay to grass on Tuesday, the reigning Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion advancing at the HSBC Championships, 6-4, 7-6 (4) over Adam Walton.

“Grass season: here we go!” Alcaraz wrote on the camera lens following the one hour and 42-minute victory.

The world No. 2 is now 23-1 since the clay court season began in April, taking a 13-match winning streak onto grass after winning back-to-back titles in Rome and Roland Garros and and extending it to 14 in a row. Alcaraz also joined Roland Garros runner-up Jannik Sinner, who won his first round in Halle earlier on Tuesday, in the winner's column.

Alcaraz has also won 21 of his last 22 matches on grass, having won the last two Wimbledon Championships in addition to a 2023 Queen’s Club victory. His 2024 title defense at the ATP 500 ended with a surprise loss to a rising Jack Draper and the Spaniard has been keen on improving his consistency after an up-and-down start to 2025.

His clay season saw vast improvements on that front, capturing his first Masters title of the season in Monte Carlo and leaving Barcelona after a narrow defeat in the final to childhood rival Holger Rune.

Fresh off his fifth Grand Slam victory in Paris, Alcaraz was initially scheduled to face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the first round, but his countryman was forced to withdraw due to illness.

Replacing Davidovich Fokina was Walton, a lucky loser who upset No. 2 seed Hamad Medjedovic in the qualifying tournament but lost to fellow Aussie Aleksandar Vukic in the final round.

Given a second life, Walton pushed Alcaraz hard over two sets but came up short on most of the match’s key points, losing a long seventh game to hand over the lone break of the opening set. Despite saving set points on his own serve, Walton couldn’t make a dent on the Alcaraz delivery and the former world No. 1 was a set to the good.

The second set saw Walton try to make a late push with a 15-40 opening on the ALcaraz serve, but Alcaraz saved both and pushed the set into a tiebreaker.

With the Sudden Death tied at 3-3 at the change of ends, Alcaraz turned up the volume to win four of the final five points and edge over the finish line in under two hours.

Standing between the top seed and a spot in the quarterfinals will be the winner of a first round between Jordan Rhompson and Juame Munar, who are facing off on Court 1.