“I love this part of the year!” De Minaur into second career Queen’s semi-final, beats Mannarino

Australian Alex De Minaur, the No 7 seed, edged out Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to move into the last four of Queen’s in London on Friday.

Watched by girlfriend Katie Boulter, the British No 1, de Minaur set up a clash with the winner of the match between Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the No 6 seed, and Dane Holger Rune, the second seed, next.

It is de Minaur’s second career semi-final at Queen’s, having reached that stage in 2021 where he lost to Matteo Berrettini.

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He refused to be drawn too much on his hopes for Wimbledon, though.

“This is the part of the year which I thoroughly love,” he said afterwards. “Ever since the first time I stepped on a grass court, I told myself that this was going to be my favorite surface. Now I’m fortunate to play in these prestigious events, best grass courts in the world.

“Obviously [winning Wimbledon] would be pretty surreal. But the whole plan is to take advantage of this kind of part of the year and hopefully gather some points and really set myself up in the rankings to finish the year strong.

“That’s the ultimate goal, and I’m playing some great tennis. You know, hopefully I can keep it going. I played very well last year at Wimby, so, you know, that’s obviously the main goal.”

In the previous rounds of the Queen’s Championships, the Australian beat Andy Murray (6-3, 6-1) and Argentinian Diego Schwartzman (6-2, 6-2).

Mannarino, ranked No 46, won against wildcard Liam Broady (1-6, 6-4, 6-3) and American Taylor Fritz, the No 3 seed (6-4, 7-6 (7)) earlier in the tournament.

He had also won his only previous match on grass against de Minaur, winning 6-2, 6-3 in Den Bosch last year.

"We both hate playing each other"

🗣️ @alexdeminaur is a relieved man after edging past Adrian Mannarino in three sets#cinchChampionships pic.twitter.com/wmfnbhk0sN

— cinch Championships (@QueensTennis) June 23, 2023

London ATP500, other quarter-finals results (Queen’s Club, grass, EUR 2.195.175, most recent results first):

• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Sebastian Korda vs. Cameron Norrie
• Lorenzo Musetti vs. Holger Rune