Alex de Minaur has proven no scars from his mauling by Novak Djokovic in Melbourne as he rebounded with one of the crucial placing wins of his profession over Andrey Rublev on the Rotterdam Open.
In his first match since being blown off courtroom by Djokovic on the Australian Open three weeks in the past, de Minaur performed an almost flawless match on the Dutch indoor occasion on Wednesday to hurry and harry the world No.5 Rublev to a 6-4 6-4 defeat in simply 81 one-sided minutes.
It was the Australian No.2’s third victory over a top-five opponent in lower than 4 months after he defeated Rublev’s compatriot Daniil Medvedev on the Paris Masters in November and Rafael Nadal within the United Cup in January.
It was additionally a terrific morale booster for the 23-year-old Sydneysider, who minimize a dejected determine after the lesson he obtained on Rod Laver Arena, elevating questions once more about whether or not he was geared up to deal with the true elite.
Here was an emphatic reminder that the world No.25 can provide anybody a sport on his day as he took the battle to the Russian – who’d additionally been taken to highschool by Djokovic within the Australian Open – from the beginning on the hardcourt and fairly outplayed him.
De Minaur attacked at each alternative, taking the ball uncomfortably early for Rublev’s liking and successfully took him out of his consolation zone.
‘Demon’ did not surrender a single break level over the entire match and cracked 15 winners as his fixed aggression step by step gnawed away at Rublev’s confidence, lowering him to some elementary errors, together with one embarrassing smash buried into the underside of the web.
The No.2 seed made 24 unforced errors, and simply as many that actually have been squeezed from him as he discovered de Minaur’s early, clear placing an excessive amount of to deal with.
It units up an intriguing last-16 tie for de Minaur towards American web rusher Maxime Cressy, who defeated Dutch wildcard Tim van Ritjhoven 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 6-3. The prospect of a quarter-final towards Grigor Dimitrov then awaits the winner.
Earlier, Jannik Sinner, contemporary from his victory on the ATP match in Montpellier on the weekend, beat Benjamin Bonzi 6-2 3-6 6-1 to set a last-16 duel with prime seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
