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Alex de Minaur was proud of how he battled into the second round of the Madrid Open while Alexei Popyrin ensured there are three Aussie men in the main draw.
It's not been an easy couple of months for Alex de Minaur as he's suffered a series of early defeats in tournaments - but the Australian No.1 has given himself the perfect morale boost with a back-from-the-brink win at the Madrid Open.
De Minaur said he was "very proud" of the way he had fought back in his clay-court clash with Jaume Munar, rallying from a set down to win 4-6 7-5 6-1 in two hours and 22 minutes.
The Sydneysider had been coming off a dispiriting run of five defeats in his past six matches but, even when he's been struggling for form, there's never been much wrong with his big heart.
Against 88th-ranked Munar, de Minaur was down by a set and the Spaniard needed just a couple of service holds to knock him out at the first hurdle.
Yet the world No.25 hung in, went on the offensive and started to take control, eventually blasting 42 winners as his opponent lost his way - and his cool.
"This is one of those wins that really helps your morale, helps build a lot of confidence," de Minaur told Tennis Channel.
"It was about an hour-and-a-half of me not being too comfortable out there, not playing my best tennis knowing I could bring a higher level, but just not executing.
"I'm just very proud how I hung in there. I just kept going, kept trying to stay positive and eventually kept putting myself in a position to break.
"It finally went my way and I was able to play some much better tennis and tennis that I wanted to play. Very happy."
So he should be.
This was only the Demon's fourth win on clay at tour-level and, after one of those had come at the recent Barcelona Open, he can at least feel he's at last making significant steps on the red stuff.
"I'm glad that today I told myself that whatever happened, I was going to stay positive the whole way," he said.
"Even if it didn't go my way, at least I wasn't going to lose that match because of my attitude. It worked out today," he said.
De Minaur was one of the first to book a place in the second round where he'll meet 13th seed Grigor Dimitrov or South African Lloyd Harris.
John Millman faces a tough opener against Miami winner Hubert Hurkacz while Alexei Popyrin came through qualifying to be Australia's third man in the main draw of the ATP 1000 event.
Popyrin, who's reached a career-high world No.77, beat 18-year-old Frenchman Arthur Cazaux 7-5 7-6 (7-0) to book a difficult opening round date with German Jan-Lennard Struff, who lost his first ATP tour final at the Munich Open on Sunday.
