Alex de Minaur has been overwhelmed by qualifier Aslan Karatsev within the Madrid Open.
The Australian world No.19 went down 6-3 4-6 6-4 to the Russian, who’s ranked 101 locations beneath him, however is a former top-20 participant.
The two-hour 16-minute contest appeared to be swinging de Minaur’s manner when he broke at 5-4 to win the second set. But Karatsev broke on the fifth sport of the deciding set and regardless of forcing deuces in each the tenth and twelfth video games the ‘Demon’ couldn’t discover a technique to break again.
De Minaur might have arrange a last-16 match towards Daniil Medvedev, who got here from a break down twice within the closing set to beat fellow Russian Alexander Shevchenko a 4-6 6-1 7-5 on Monday.
“He played well. He’s young, so I’m sure he’s going to (move) up the rankings, especially if he plays like in this tournament,” Medvedev mentioned of the 96th-ranked Shevchenko, who was making his main-draw debut in Madrid after coming by means of qualifying.
The 22-year-old Shevchenko, who appeared to battle with cramps towards the top of the match, took a 5-1 lead within the first set however went down 5-0 within the second. He then led 2-0 and 4-2 within the decisive set.
Lucky loser Jan-Lennard Struff additionally moved into the final 16 with a 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 6-3 win over Dusan Lajovic.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
