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AFP
Melbourne
Teenage Australian number one Alex de Minaur had to dig deep to keep his home Grand Slam hopes alive on Wednesday as he staggered into a dream third-round showdown with Rafael Nadal.
Nicknamed “Demon” and wearing a flaming red shirt, the 27th seed tore into a two-set lead but was pegged back by little-known Swiss world number 166 Henri Laaksonen who forced a fifth set.
The young Aussie eventually stuttered across the finish line 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (7/9), 4-6, 6-3 after a marathon 3hr 52min to reach the last 32 of his home Slam for the first time.
The 19-year-old warmed up for Melbourne by winning last week’s Sydney International, following a quarter-final run at Brisbane the week before where he lost to 2008 Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
De Minaur, slight in stature but with a deceptively powerful array of groundstrokes, raced through the first two sets in 74 minutes on Margaret Court Arena.
But he was forced to dig deep to see off the tenacious 26-year-old Laaksonen, lifted by a huge, loud home support.
“That was definitely pretty special. First of all I’d like to thank everybody out here. The support was amazing as always and you guys got me through that. I can’t thank you guys enough,” de Minaur said.
De Minaur is seen by many as the future of Australian tennis after flying up the rankings from outside the top 200 at the start of 2018.
He also got to the third round at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
Melbourne
Teenage Australian number one Alex de Minaur had to dig deep to keep his home Grand Slam hopes alive on Wednesday as he staggered into a dream third-round showdown with Rafael Nadal.
Nicknamed “Demon” and wearing a flaming red shirt, the 27th seed tore into a two-set lead but was pegged back by little-known Swiss world number 166 Henri Laaksonen who forced a fifth set.
The young Aussie eventually stuttered across the finish line 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (7/9), 4-6, 6-3 after a marathon 3hr 52min to reach the last 32 of his home Slam for the first time.
The 19-year-old warmed up for Melbourne by winning last week’s Sydney International, following a quarter-final run at Brisbane the week before where he lost to 2008 Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
De Minaur, slight in stature but with a deceptively powerful array of groundstrokes, raced through the first two sets in 74 minutes on Margaret Court Arena.
But he was forced to dig deep to see off the tenacious 26-year-old Laaksonen, lifted by a huge, loud home support.
“That was definitely pretty special. First of all I’d like to thank everybody out here. The support was amazing as always and you guys got me through that. I can’t thank you guys enough,” de Minaur said.
De Minaur is seen by many as the future of Australian tennis after flying up the rankings from outside the top 200 at the start of 2018.
He also got to the third round at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
