World No 1 Sinner shocked in Halle by Bublik Alcaraz survives Queen s scare

BERLIN - Defending champion Jannik Sinner lost his second-round match on grass at Halle on June 19 to Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, the Italian’s first tournament since his French Open final defeat.

Meanwhile, world No. 2 Alcaraz survived a huge scare against fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar to move into the Queen’s Club quarter-finals in Britain with a 6-4, 6-7 (7/9),7-5 victory.

World number one Sinner fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to the 45th-ranked Bublik for the 23-year-old’s first defeat to a player ranked outside the top 20 since the summer of 2023.

A few days before his defeat to Alcaraz in the title match at the French Open, Sinner had easily dispatched Bublik in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, dropping only six games.

On June 19, ten days before Wimbledon, Bublik claimed his second victory in six ties against Sinner.

The Kazakh will play Tomas Machac in the quarter-finals after the Czech beat Hungarian Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 6-3 earlier in the day.

Earlier, world number three Alexander Zverev rallied from a set down to see off Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego and advance to the quarter-finals on grass in Halle.

The 28-year-old German won 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) against the 46th-ranked Sonego and next plays another Italian, Flavio Cobolli for a place in the semi-finals.

A finalist in Halle in 2016 and 2017, Zverev recorded his fifth victory in as many meetings with Sonego, a year after beating him at the same stage of the same competition.

Sonego took advantage of his only chance to break in the first set at 4-3. The German struggled throughout to break his opponent’s serve.

Zverev dug deep in the second set, leading 5-4, to win the set before dominating the tiebreak in the final set.

Argentina’s 63rd ranked Tomas Martin Etcheverry also reached the quarter-finals after