"I'm just happy with being here, Blockx said. Even winning my first match here. I barely escaped in the first round and I was happy about that already. Semi-finals is something I wouldn't have even dreamed of to begin with."
"The conditions suit me well here. I feel like it's clay which is slow, so I have time to settle and hit my shots, go for my shots. At the same time, it's quite fast with the altitude and the heat sometimes. It's the perfect combination for me."
"I thought from the first game I was hitting my ball quite well, and I made [lots of] returns, he said. Once I got my first game, I was really into the match."
Alexander Blockx, a 21-year-old Belgian, defeated defending champion Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open. Blockx, ranked 69th, had previously not won an ATP Tour match on clay before this tournament. He has also defeated notable players like Felix Auger-Aliassime. Blockx expressed happiness about reaching the semi-finals, a feat he did not initially dream of. He is the fourth lowest-ranked player to reach the last four in Madrid and has a 4-2 record against top 20 opponents this month.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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