Queen’s: Bautista Agut stuns Rune and secures his spot in the semifinals

Roberto Bautista Agut is like fine wine — he only gets better with age! At 37, the Spaniard claimed a two-sets-to-one victory (7-6 [5], 6-7 [4], 6-2) over Denmark’s Holger Rune, the No. 4 seed, to reach the semifinals of the Queen’s Club tournament in London on Friday evening.

This marks his first appearance in an ATP semifinal since October 2024, when he won the title in Antwerp, and his first on grass since the Halle tournament in 2023. Grass has historically been a successful surface for Bautista Agut: he won his first career title on it in 2014 at ‘s-Hertogenbosch and achieved his best Grand Slam result on it — a semifinal at Wimbledon in 2019.

This Friday against Holger Rune, he once again showed why he’s such an effective player on grass. The Spaniard took advantage of his opponent’s numerous unforced errors — 63 in total — to clinch the win. After controlling the first set well, he had the chance to close it out in straight sets, but a double fault at 4-5 in the second-set tiebreak forced him into a deciding third set.

Bautista Agut will face Alcaraz

After breaking Holger Rune at the very start of the final set, he maintained his lead all the way through, even managing a second break to seal the match early in the evening on the British grass.

“I think I had control of the match today, especially from the baseline. I managed to stay calm on court, and I’m really happy about that. I felt good out there, and I’ll need to play the same kind of match against Carlos tomorrow,” said the 37-year-old after his victory.

Bautista Agut, currently ranked No. 51 in the ATP rankings, will face fellow Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed, in the semifinals at the West Kensington tournament. It will be their third meeting on the ATP Tour, with Alcaraz leading 2–0 and yet to drop a set against his compatriot.

In the previous rounds of the Queen’s tournament, the 37-year-old Spaniard edged out Portuguese Nuno Borges (6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-4) and No 8 seed Jakub Mensik (3-6, 6-3, 7-5).

Rune, ranked No 9, won against Australian lucky loser Christopher O’Connell (6-3, 6-4) and American qualifier Mackenzie McDonald (2-6, 6-1, 6-1) earlier in the tournament.

London ATP 500, other quarter-finals results (Queen’s Club, grass, EUR 2.522.220, most recent results first):

• Carlos Alcaraz beat Arthur Rinderknech (LL): 7-5, 6-4
• Jack Draper (2) beat Brandon Nakashima: 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
• Jiri Lehecka beat Jacob Fearnley: 7-5, 6-2