Carlos Alcaraz returned to the summit of the ATP Rankings with his maiden Queen's Club Championship crown on Sunday, defeating Australia's Alex de Minaur in two sets in the final.
The US Open champion overcame a thigh niggle and a stingy De Minaur to triumph 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 39 minutes and return to world number one, knocking Novak Djokovic off top spot.
Alcaraz's success also marked his first ATP Tour singles crown on grass, having previously sealed seven of his previous 10 titles on clay, with the other three coming on hard courts.
"I want to congratulate Alex for a great tournament this week, I'm sure you're going to make more finals and fight for great things," Alcaraz said on the court.
"It means a lot to have my name on the trophy, it has been special to play here where so many legends have won. Seeing my name surrounded by great champions is amazing.
"Being a No1 and top seed will help at Wimbledon. But once again it wouldn't be possible without the support of all my people through the week. I started not well and had to adapt my movement to get the experience on grass."
Neither man gave much away in the early exchanges, but Alcaraz needed just the one break point to edge ahead in the ninth game, having previously saved two break points to hold for 4-4.
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The world number one saw out the first set with an ace before taking a medical timeout and returning to the court with strapping around his right thigh, but he continued to dictate play and went a set and a break up on a De Minaur double fault.
The Australian raced through his final two service games but could not fashion another opportunity to break Alcaraz, who brushed off two early unforced errors in the final game and took his first match point as De Minaur returned long.
Over at the Birmingham Classic, there was a second grass-court crown for Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko, who overcame Czech top seed Barbora Krejcikova 7-6[8] 6-4 to win her first title of the season.
It took until the fourth game for either player to win a point on their opponent's serve, and there were only three break points brought up in the entirety of the first set - two squandered chances for Krejcikova and one for Ostapenko.
However, the Latvian found a sixth gear in a tantalising tie-breaker to take the opener on her fourth set point, albeit while having to beat away one such opportunity for Krejcikova, who evidently had the wind knocked out of her as she fell 5-1 down in the second set.
The former world number two refused to give up the ghost, though, and she broke Ostapenko while the second seed was serving for the set before pulling the scoreline back to 5-4, but the 2017 French Open champion got the job done in the 10th game with a slick forehand down the line.
Ben Knapton
