Carlos Alcaraz said it was “great” to have his new doubles partner Emma Raducanu cheer him into the HSBC Championships final.
And the Wimbledon champion revealed he watches all the British No.1’s matches on TV – and would like to support her in future.
The five-time Grand Slam champion said earlier this week that he had made a “special request” to play with the British No.1 in the revamped mixed doubles event at the US Open in August.
The glamorous pairing of the two former US Open winners has already been nicknamed “Alcaranu”. Raducanu was on the balcony of the Queen’s Club where her friend Myah Petchey – the daughter of her coach Mark – as Alcaraz beat fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4 6-4.
And after his 17th consecutive win, Alcaraz smiled: “I saw on social media she came up to watch my match. I’m just glad. I mean, I was focused on the match. I didn’t see her afterwards. I am just glad that she came to support me, to watch my match. Yeah, I think it was great having her in the stands.”
Raducanu will be playing the Lexus Eastbourne Open next week in her final warm-up event before Wimbledon.
And Alcaraz said he would like to go and support her in a match before the US Open. “It depends on the schedule, obviously. I have practices,” he said. “I have matches. Yeah, I would love to, yeah, if I have time, if I’m at the club or I don’t have anything else to do, yeah, I would love to come and watch her. I’m watching her matches from the TV every time that I can. So watching her for real could be fun.”
Speaking after their US Open partnership was announced earlier this week, Alcaraz said: “I’m super excited about it. I think it’s going to be great. It was an amazing idea for the tournament. I was thinking that I couldn’t play better if it wasn’t with Emma. I just asked Emma if she wants to play doubles with me. Yeah, I made that special request. She took a while to respond. Not that much, not that much! But obviously she had to ask, and she had to think a little bit. But it wasn’t a minute!
“I have known Emma for a really long time. I have a really good relationship with her. We are gonna enjoy it for sure. We will try to win. But obviously it’s going to be really, really fun.”
Alcaraz will bid to warm-up for his Wimbledon defence by winning the Queen’s Club title for a second time on Sunday against Czech world No.30 Jiri Lehecka.
The Spanish superstar, who is on an 18-match winning streak and into a fifth consecutive final, said: “It’s great to be back in another final. It’s special to play a final here at Queen’s.
Yeah, just feeling great. I’m just enjoying my time, my time here. The confidence is pretty high right now. Obviously, as many wins as you get, you’re going to get more confident. The way that I’m moving, the way that I’m hitting the ball, I think it’s really high right now. So hopefully tomorrow it’s going to be even better.”