Alex de Minaur has raced into the US Open third spherical like he had a scorching ticket to Broadway.
Australia’s world No.13 dispatched Yibing Wu 6-1 6-2 6-1 in simply 86 minutes to storm into the final 32 for the fifth time in seven journeys to New York.
1 / 4-finalist in 2020, de Minaur loves the quicker tempo of Flushing Meadows and sped by way of Thursday’s match in vastly completely different style to his laborious four-set, first-round dogfight in opposition to Kazakh qualifier Timofey Skatov.
Wu is the Chinese giant-killer who not solely dumped Nick Kyrgios out of Stuttgart within the grand slam finalist’s untimely return from a knee damage this yr but in addition upended Denis Shapovalov and Taylor Fritz en path to the ultimate on Dallas laborious courts in February.
But de Minaur broke him seven instances, gained 82 per cent of his first-serve factors and dedicated a meagre 10 unforced errors in 22 video games to hitch countryman Rinky Hijikata within the final 32.
“Matches are never easy so whenever you get a chance to kind of come away with a win like that, you will take it for sure,” de Minaur mentioned.
“I don’t think he was feeling 100 per cent today. It’s a shame for him but ultimately it is one of those matches I did what I needed to do and happy to be in the next round.
“I was proud of my mental head space the whole match. I was locked in from the very first point until the last and no matter what was happening in the match.
“You always take a drama free match.”
The thirteenth seed will play Nicolas Jarry subsequent on Sunday (AEST) after the world No.25 eradicated 17-year-old American wildcard Alex Michelsen 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3
De Minaur beat the Chilean in two tiebreakers of their solely earlier encounter, on a tough court docket in Acapulco 4 years in the past.
“He’s dangerous because he’s very big and has a great serve and forehand,” de Minaur mentioned.
“He’s got very good weapons that at any moment he can just flip the switch and take the racquet our of your hand.
“It is going to be a difficult match in the sense that I am going to have to do my best to keep him on the run and uncomfortable out there and try to not to let him dictate to me.”
Fellow Australian Chris O’Connell will look to observe de Minaur and Hijikata into the third spherical when he faces third-seeded 2021 Open champion Daniil Medvedev afterward day 4.
Wildcard Hijikata is up in opposition to China’s world No.67 Zhizhen Zhang on Friday (Saturday AEST) in his first grand slam third-round look.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
