Great Britain's Jack Draper advanced to the quarter-finals of the Queen's Club Championship after beating defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 6-3.
In a tight first set with no break points, Draper excelled in the tie-break to win 7-3 and take the opening set, before breaking through in the second set to go up 5-2 with two match points on Alcaraz's serve. I went ahead.
The Spaniard recovered from there to recover, but Draper held his nerve and played for the win.
The Queen's defense of Alcaraz came to an end after a series of losses to England's Draper.
Spanish superstar Alcaraz, who won the French Open earlier this month, has not lost in seven weeks in nearly two years and has never lost on grass.
But Draper signaled he is ready to join the upper echelon of the game by becoming the first Briton to beat a top two player on grass since Andy Murray's win over Novak Djokovic in the 2013 Wimbledon final.
“It was a really tough game,” Draper said. “Carlos is the defending champion, he won Wimbledon, he’s an incredible talent and he’s amazing in the sport.
“I had to come out and play well and luckily I did that.
“Right now there is nowhere else I would turn to my family, my friends and the support of the UK. My grandfather is here, who has just turned 80. He is doing well.”
Draper became the new British No. 1 on Monday, winning his first ATP Tour title by beating Matteo Berrettini in the final of the Stuttgart Open on Sunday.
Draper will play the nation's fifth seed. tommy paulHe beat Chile's Alejandro Tabilo 6-3 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
Now that top seed Alcaraz is out, second seed Alex de Minaur and third seed Grigor Dimitrov have already been eliminated, as have sixth, seventh and eighth seeds Ben Shelton, Holger Rune and Ugo Humbert.
Alcaraz had no complaints about the result as their 13-game unbeaten streak on turf was halted.
He said, “I'm not in very good shape right now. I feel like I can't play well and I feel like I can't move.”
“Of course I have to give Jack credit. I think he played really good tennis today.”
Draper joins another Briton, a wild card, in the last eight. Billy Harris.
The 29-year-old journeyman from Nottingham, who usually travels to lower level tournaments in a campervan, has made great progress this week.
He celebrated the news that he had secured a Wimbledon wildcard and a guaranteed £60,000 salary after beating French qualifier Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4 7-5.
“My confidence is great. I went into this match knowing his serve was going to be tough,” Harris said.
“The game was fast paced and we had to stay focused. We got some rest when we needed to and I thought we played well.
“I didn’t know how they would react when I came out here, but as soon as I got on the court I got great support from the crowd and they helped me through the game.”
England's success increased in doubles as Joe Salisbury and his American partner Rajeev Ram formed a scratch pairing against Sebastian Korda and Alex De Minaur.
In the quarter-finals, Salisbury will face another Briton, Neil Swupski, who plays alongside New Zealander Michael Venus.
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