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Rejuvenated de Minaur reaches second round

3 minute read

Australian No.1 Alex de Minaur has booked his spot in the second round at Wimbledon with a straight sets win over Marco Cecchinato.

ALEX DE MINAUR of Australia plays Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina during the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California.
ALEX DE MINAUR of Australia plays Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina during the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California. Picture: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Alex de Minaur has charged into the second round at Wimbledon, brushing aside former French Open semi-finalist Marco Cecchinato in straight sets.

In a rematch of last year's opening round clash, de Minaur once again prevailed against the Italian to set up a second round clash with American Steve Johnson.

But unlike the four-set arm wrestle of 12 months ago it was a largely dominant display from the Australian No.1 who won the first nine games of the match on his way to a 6-0 6-4 7-6 (7-5) triumph over the world No.41.

The result was a much-needed morale boost for the 20-year-old Sydneysider, who cut a disconsolate figure after crashing out of Queen's Club in the first round two weeks ago.

He has also battled osteitis pubis which stalled his fine start to the year which saw him claim his first ATP title in Sydney in January and break into the top 25.

Seeded 25 and name-checked recently by Stefanos Tsitsipas as one of the young players in the game capable of ending the dominance of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, de Minaur dominated the opening set.

This was in spite of having to save four break points in a marathon opening game that lasted over 10 minutes.

But it proved to be plain sailing from that point as he broke the Italian three times to deliver his second first set bagel in a grand slam - emulating his emphatic start against Japan's Daniel Taro at last year's US Open.

He then raced into a 3-0 lead in the second set only for the 26-year-old Sicilian to break back before the Sydneysider claimed the set with another break in the 10th game.

The third set was a tighter affair with de Minaur needing to dig deep to hold serve at 3-3 after four deuces before closing out the tiebreak.

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