A pumped-up Alex de Minaur has delivered a formidable begin to his sixth Australian Open marketing campaign as he seems to be to make a deep run at Melbourne Park.
The solely seeded residence hope within the match after the injury-forced withdrawal of Nick Kyrgios, de Minaur made brief work of Taiwanese qualifier Hsu Yu Hsiou, profitable 6-2 6-2 6-3 on Tuesday night time.
Hsu, ranked 209, had by no means overwhelmed a top-100 participant and was no match for de Minaur’s velocity and accuracy.
The 23-year-old was ruthlessly environment friendly, with the one main delay in his race to victory coming whereas there was a delay to shut the John Cain Arena roof when rain hit.
De Minaur’s finest consequence so far on the Open got here final yr when he reached the fourth spherical.
But he has arrived this yr with sky-high confidence after claiming the scalp of top-seed Rafael Nadal on the season-opening United Cup and taking down two-time Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev on the Paris Masters in November.
“I knew it was going to be a tough match but I’m just happy to be here in Australia, playing in front of you guys,” de Minaur stated in his on-court interview.
“It doesn’t matter who I play, I’m going to be up for it – you guys just bring the energy, I’ll be ready.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence – I knew I had that level for a while … now I know I can do it every week.”
Seeded 22, de Minaur subsequent faces both American John Isner or one other veteran, Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, on Thursday with their match on an outdoor court docket delayed by the downpour.
Play was stopped earlier on day two for 3 hours on account of warmth earlier than the rain delay, placing on maintain fellow Australians Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alexei Popyrin.
Aleksandar Vukic’s opening conflict with fellow qualifier American Brandon Holt was additionally delayed whereas Christopher O’Connell and Max Purcell had been stopped mid-match.
Earlier, American JJ Wolf ousted Jordan Thompson 6-3 3-6 6-4 7-5.
Kimberly Birrell snapped an extended grand slam win drought to upset No.31 seed Kaia Kanepi 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-1.
Birrell’s second-round opponent can be Czech Linda Fruhvirtova, who beat fellow Australian wildcard Jaimee Fourlis 6-0 6-4 earlier on Tuesday.
