Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime laid down a marker for Wimbledon as he claimed the scalp of Greek top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas at Queen’s on Friday with an impressive 7-5, 6-2 victory.

At 18, Auger-Aliassime becomes the youngest Queen’s semi-finalist since Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt at the same age in 1999.

The Canadian may have been seeded lower, but he owns a perfect record against Tsitsipas with three victories as a junior and now two on the ATP Tour.

Tsitsipas – two years older than his opponent – ruefully admitted he is going to have to find a magic formula to beat Auger-Aliassime.

“He’s the most difficult opponent I’ve ever faced, and I think it’s gonna take a couple of tries to beat him,” said Tsitsipas.

“It’s upsetting obviously that he’s better than me. I have to accept that he’s better than me.

“I might never beat him, but if I think that way, just need to wait, years maybe, for that chance to come.”

Tsitsipas, who joked he might donate $10,000 to charity when he does beat the Canadian, was not helped by a painful right shoulder which required on-court treatment – compounded by two falls in the final game of the first set.

He said he woke up feeling sore and blamed it on having to play two matches yesterday – an unfinished first-round clash with Kyle Edmund and then a tough three setter with journeyman Frenchman Jeremy Chardy – although it was the same for Auger-Aliassime.

“Playing two matches wasn’t easy,” he said.

“Playing a three-set match was really difficult, not just for my nerves but also for my body. So that was it.”

Auger-Aliassime will play either his more experienced compatriot Milos Raonic or 37-year-old veteran Feliciano Lopez in Saturday’s semi-finals.

‘Few expectations’

He laughed when asked if had been thinking about Boris Becker who won Queen’s at 17 in 1985 and then won Wimbledon a few weeks later.

“Not really,” the eighth seed said.

“Honestly I had few expectations coming here but I have handled my nerves and I don’t want to think too far ahead.”

Auger-Aliassime and Tsitsipas contested a hard-fought first set before the young Canadian took it 7-5, breaking the Greek’s serve in a game that saw the top seed hit the grass twice.

Auger-Aliassime raced into a 3-0 lead in the second with his opponent unusually listless and struggling at the changeover as he received treatment from a medic.

Earlier, Daniil Medvedev became the first Russian to reach the last four at Queen’s in the Open era – where he will play Frenchman Gilles Simon – as he outplayed Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman, the fourth seed running out a 6-2, 6-2 winner.

Schwartzman’s hopes of repeating his impressive win over defending champion Marin Cilic in the second round were quickly doused by Medvedev, who broke in the first game of the match and then in the fifth and then did the same again in the second.