Alex de Minaur has swept into the last-16 of the Barcelona Open, the match that is develop into a home-from-home playground for Australia’s high tennis man.
It took the Sydneysider simply 63 minutes to brush apart the problem of younger Russian Alexander Shevchenko on Wednesday as he reeled off the primary 10 video games in a row earlier than sealing a 6-0 6-1 triumph to race into the last-16.
From his European base in Alicante on Spain’s jap coast, de Minaur all the time enjoys the 500km journey north to Catalonia the place final yr he savoured his best-ever clay-court match by reaching the semi-finals.
De Minaur, who had even held match factors towards house gun Carlos Alcaraz in that last-four encounter in 2022 earlier than being edged out, is searching for one other profitable week after launching his clay-court season with combined ends in Monte Carlo final week.
His launch pad guarantees a lot as he fairly outplayed Shevchenko, the world No.98, with six breaks of serve and even homed in on a uncommon ‘double bagel’ 6-0 6-0 victory earlier than the Russian lastly staved off that potential humiliation by getting on to the board within the eleventh sport.
It was only a transient keep of execution because the world No.19 raced by the ultimate two video games to earn his most one-sided victory ever on clay.
It arrange a last-16 tie for the Australian with Grigor Dimitrov, repeating their mini-classic on the Rotterdam Open in February which was received by the Bulgarian in a deciding tiebreak.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
