Carlos Alcaraz will face Alex de Minaur in the Queen’s final for the chance to win a first grass title and return to world number one before Wimbledon.

Earlier on Saturday, Australian De Minaur beat Danish second seed Holger Rune 6-3 7-6 (7-2).

A win at the London tournament would lift Alcaraz above Novak Djokovic in the rankings and make him top seed for Wimbledon, which starts on 3 July.

“At the beginning of the week I didn’t know that a good result would put me number one but in the press conference yesterday they told me and I thought ‘oh my god – it’s in my mind, I’m going to go for it’,” Alcaraz said after his win over Korda.

Lifting the Queen’s trophy would be quite an achievement for someone playing only their third tournament on grass, with this the Spaniard’s first final on the surface.

“I’m getting better, feeling better every match and right now I feel like I’ve played for 10 years on grass,” Alcaraz said.

“I didn’t expect to adapt my movement and my game so fast on grass and I’m really happy with that.”

Since losing the opening set in the first round, Alcaraz has looked slick at the tournament and broke Korda’s serve twice in the opening set on Saturday, making just one unforced error in the set to take a dominant lead.

He went an early break ahead in the second and proceeded to curry favour with the London crowd when he hit three outstanding returns over 90mph to break Korda for a second time and go on to serve out the match.

‘One more to go’ for in-form De Minaur

Sunday’s final will be a first at this tournament for both players but De Minaur boasts more grass experience than his Spanish counterpart.

Having won at Eastbourne in 2021, De Minaur has proved this week his quick feet and efficient style of play are a good match for the surface.

The 24-year-old becomes the first Australian to reach the final of Queen’s since 2006 when Lleyton Hewitt won the title after defeating American James Blake in straight sets.

“I’m having an amazing week, let’s just hope I can do just one better tomorrow,” De Minaur said.

“I love being here, love playing on this court in front of this amazing crowd.

“It’s a pretty special tournament, today was my best match so far. So, happy days – one to go. It would be pretty nice [to win], I’ll do my best.”

De Minaur immediately broke Rune and served efficiently to take the opening set before the world number six, who has won his first matches on grass at this tournament, saved three break points in the eighth game of the second set on his way to an important hold.

But De Minaur was methodical on serve and bided his time before a dominant tie-break display secured his place in the final and sparked a roar of emotion from the otherwise restrained Australian.

De Minaur has never gone further than the fourth round at Wimbledon but has been in fine form at the warm-up tournament, with his semi-final win over a player ranked 12 places above him evidence of that.

Bublik to face Rublev in Halle Open final

Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik will take on Russian third seed Andrey Rublev in the final of the Halle Open in Germany after shocking home favourite and French Open semi-finalist Alexander Zverev 6-3 7-5.

The 26-year-old’s run to the final will lift him 15 spots to number 33 in the world rankings before Wimbledon as he aims for a first title on grass.

World number seven Rublev, who reached the final in Halle in 2021 but was beaten by Frenchman Ugo Humbert, comfortably beat eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3 6-4 in his semi-final on Saturday after the Spaniard had knocked out top seed Daniil Medvedev on Friday.

Bublik, who won his only tour-level trophy in Montpellier in 2022, has found form on grass and advanced to the last four when quarter-final opponent Jannik Sinner of Italy retired injured in their second set.