Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Alex de Minaur’s hopes of joining the illustrious Australian roll of honour at the Queen’s Club Championships have been dynamited by inspired American Brandon Nakashima.
Top seed de Minaur cut a frustrated figure again on Friday, having surely seen this as his best ever opportunity to win the tournament that’s considered second only to Wimbledon in terms of grass-court prestige.
But the world No.6 caught Nakashima on one of his hot days in the London sunshine as the crisp-hitting Californian prevailed 7-5 6-3 in the quarter-final of the historic championships on Andy Murray Arena.
It meant de Minaur’s dream of advancing one place to join the world’s top-five players for the first time was also sunk.
If he had prevailed, de Minaur would have leapfrogged American Ben Shelton, who was simultaneously losing his quarter-final at the Halle tournament in Germany to Taylor Fritz, into the fifth spot.
No less than 18 Australian men, including all-time greats such as Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver, have won the prestigious Wimbledon warm-up event.
In its 123rd edition, de Minaur had been hoping to emulate the most recent of them, Lleyton Hewitt, who won the last of his four titles 20 years ago and was in the Sydneysider’s player’s box on Friday to urge on a player built in his never-say-die image.
But world No.32 Nakashima is a handful for anyone on a grass court, and neither player gave up a single break point in the opening set until the Californian pounced in the 12th game, forcing de Minaur to miss a hopeful lob to stay alive.
But the Australian looked to have weathered the storm and was the better player in the second set, until he offered up his worst service game at 3-4 and Nakashima broke with a scintillating forehand pass, one of his 20 striking winners.
Typically, de Minaur still fought tigerishly from 5-3, 30-0 down to earn a break point of his own, but Nakashima saved it with another huge serve down the T and went on to earn victory in just over an hour and a half.
He’ll play either British surprise packet Arthur Fery or Francisco Cerundolo in the last four, but there’s still a chance of an Australian semi-finalist, with qualifier Rinky Hijikata to tackle either Hamad Medjedovic or Ugo Humbert in the quarters later on Friday.
