Carlos Alcaraz, the world number 2, made his status as favorite count in the final at Queen's and beat Jiri Lehecka in three sets by 7-5, 6-7 (5) and 6-2.

The Murcian, who looks like the best tennis player of the moment despite his ranking marks a number two, won his third consecutive trophy, after Rome and Roland Garros, and the fourth in his career on grass, after Queen's 2023 and Wimbledon 2023 and 2024. In addition, he is the second Spaniard in history to win twice here after Toledo's Feliciano López in 2017 and 2019.

At the London club, the first to see him triumph on this surface two years ago, when he was barely a rookie with no experience on it, only two things could be heard, the rattling of the flags that guard the enclosure in the wind and the hammering of the ball from the Murcian, who has turned his game into a relentless weapon on grass.

His serve, the one he complained about just three days ago, is now infallible and transmits a tranquility with which it is very difficult, if not impossible, for him to lose. The first set against Lehecka, a slugger reminiscent of Tomas Berdych even though he's not one of the tallest on tour, demonstrated this. He only lost four points on serve, won 89 percent of his first points and 82 percent of his second, and didn't face a single break point.

He reached 4-5 with just one lost point, and there Lehecka had a dangerous 0-30 deficit that Alcaraz stopped with four masterful serves.

Alcaraz opened the door for him for a second and slammed it shut, leaving the Czech knocked out and on his feet when Alcaraz broke him on his next serve. He intimidated him by getting the first break point and shouted "Come on" again when he closed it.

The 7-5 scoreline was a true reflection of the game on grass. If you don't hunt, they hunt you, and missing opportunities is not acceptable. Lehecka's match was perfect, as she had already shown in the practice set they played last Monday, which had to be suspended at 5-5, but a single error here can send you to the canvas. And Alcaraz experienced that firsthand in the second set tiebreak. when, after making one of the best points of the tournament with an incredible lob, he committed a double fault at 5-5 that handed set point to the Czech. The latter, with a bomb on his serve, did not waste it and gave the crowd a bit more entertainment, which, given the speed of the match, was clamoring for it. In that extra set, Alcaraz broke his aces record once again, leaving it at 18, and finished sculpting the title. Without any surprises or further tiebreaks, a single break in the fourth game was enough to consolidate the title and turn the fatigue of Paris and the holidays in Ibiza into more fire for his fuse and extend a good moment that has already lasted for months.

This has been his fifth consecutive final, winning four of them, he has improved his winning streak to 18, he now has 21 titles and has shortened the gap against Jannik Sinner in the battle for the number one to 1,030 points.

Beating Lehecka means he arrives at Wimbledon much better prepared than his rivals, since Sinner lost in the second round of Halle and Novak Djokovic will only play an exhibition before the third Grand Slam of the year, but it also means that he has won four titles on grass at just 22 years of age.

Nobody got used to winning with such simplicity so quickly.