Alex de Minaur’s Australian Open preparation has hit an early snag with a decisive 6-3 6-3 loss to Britain’s Cameron Norrie on day one of many United Cup in Sydney.
Nick Kyrgios’ late withdrawal from the brand new mixed-gender workforce event meant de Minaur had lower than 36 hours’ discover he can be taking part in the world No. 14 at Ken Rosewall Arena on Thursday night time.
The Sydney crowd made its emotions identified; one spectator wore a Kyrgios tee shirt with a clown wig and make-up, whereas others held indicators referencing Kyrgios’ scratching.
Despite the last-minute change, world No. 24 de Minaur would’ve favored his probabilities of inflicting an upset, having defeated Norrie within the pair’s solely earlier assembly this April.
Both males got here into Thursday night time’s match on the again of career-best years and de Minaur had the additional motivation of eager to bounce again at residence after Australia’s loss within the Davis Cup ultimate final month.
But Norrie shut the native crowd out to assert early momentum.
De Minaur didn’t convert three consecutive break factors early within the first set and was made to pay by Norrie, who clawed again to win that sport after which break his rival.
“Alex had that early chance and wasn’t able to take it,” mentioned Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt.
“But then Cam did very little wrong from start to finish. It just wasn’t our night tonight.”
Norrie stored troubling the Australian along with his highly effective forehand and took the primary set inside 40 minutes.
De Minaur’s serve packed a punch – his first of the night time slammed into the online and introduced the chair umpire all the way down to conduct some emergency repairs.
But Norrie’s precision from the baseline was unmatched and when the Brit received a rally to interrupt de Minaur a second time and go up 3-2 within the second set, the Australian had all of the work to do.
He got here near his personal first break level of the night time within the subsequent sport however couldn’t convert on deuce as Norrie opened up a 1-0 lead for Great Britain in 91 minutes.
“I made a couple of errors in certain areas and just didn’t play my best overall tennis,” de Minaur mentioned.
“It probably wasn’t my best performance but we’ve got lots to look forward to.”
De Minaur faces reigning Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal in his second singles match of the event on Monday.
The second match on Thursday night time pits Australian world No. 772 Zoe Hives towards Britain’s Katie Swan, who’s ranked No.145.
