Onto the next one.
Alex de Minaur launched his Roland-Garros campaign on Tuesday with a scrappy straight-sets victory over Serbian Laslo Djere where he was one point off dropping the third set on four occasions.
Alex de Minaur had little trouble moving into the second round at Roland-Garros.Credit: Getty Images
The tournament’s ninth seed – a first-time quarter-finalist in Paris last year – rarely reached any great heights, but the 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) result never looked in doubt as he extended his perfect record against his 59th-ranked rival to four matches.
“I’m happy to get there. It wasn’t pretty, but I ultimately got the win, and that’s all that matters,” de Minaur said.
“I’m feeling very comfortable on this surface. Everything from my movement, to my shape, to my understanding of how to construct points and what is going to be effective for me on this surface.
“There are still plenty of areas that I need to get a little bit better. That’s probably weight of shot. It doesn’t come as natural to me to play with a lot of spin and heaviness. That’s something that on the clay is, obviously, very effective and very important.”
De Minaur looked good at times but merely OK at others, which seemed to trigger his sporadic frustration, as Djere threatened to force a fourth set when the Australian dropped serve from 40-0 to fall 4-2 behind.
Djere earned consecutive set points on serve, but a double fault slipped him to deuce and delivered the opening the ever-dogged de Minaur needed. A poorly executed drop shot put the set back on serve two points later, only for Djere to again hold back-to-back set points in the tiebreak.
After Djere blew the first of those with another unforced error, de Minaur produced one of his archetypal points to save the next.
Djere repeatedly looked in position to finish the Australian No.1, but he kept hanging in before the Serb tugged a cross-court backhand narrowly wide. That proved his last opportunity: he shanked a forehand long before de Minaur sealed his passage to the second round with a well-placed first serve.
Serbia’s Laslo Djere hits a forehand against Alex De Minaur.Credit: AP
Most importantly, de Minaur was on and off court 14 in barely two-and-a-half hours before the rain arrived.
His serve was not a strength on this breezy Paris afternoon and will need to improve if he is to push into the second week again.
De Minaur has sacrificed a higher first-serve percentage hunting for more cheap points in recent years, but would not be satisfied with landing only 43 per cent of them against Djere.
The upside for de Minaur is he won 74 per cent of those points, and even 61 per cent on his second serve – a trend in his rise to the top 10 – and he showed glimpses of his best despite leaking an uncharacteristic 44 unforced errors.
De Minaur took a medical time-out after set two to have his toes re-taped, coinciding with a Djere toilet break, but showed no signs of discomfort and dismissed it as an issue post-match.
He also confirmed his French super fan Paul was again in attendance after becoming a viral sensation for his support of the Australian last year.
“Paul’s here. He made it. He’s got a very distinctive way of supporting me, which even though I wasn’t sure exactly where he was sitting, I could definitely hear him,” de Minaur said.
“I made contact with him at the very end of the match, and it’s great to have him around again. Hopefully, we can have a blast again this year. As far as I know, if he’s available, he’ll be coming to all of my matches.”
De Minaur took a medical timeout after the second set to have his toes re-taped.Credit: AP
The last time the 26-year-old failed to make the second round at a grand slam was at this tournament three years ago, but he is a superior player now to then, including significant improvement on clay.
De Minaur felt comfortable enough about his progress on the red dirt to suggest last month that he was ready to face anyone on it, and he backed up his last-eight run at Roland-Garros with a series of impressive claycourt efforts in the lead-up to this year’s event.
There will be more challenging clashes ahead, starting with Kazakh Alex Bublik, who dispatched another Australian, James Duckworth, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 inside two hours.
“He’s going to be extremely dangerous. He went through a little bit of a rough patch at the start of the year, [but] he’s definitely found his game as of late,” de Minaur said.
“It’s going to be tough because he’s unpredictable. He takes the racquet out of your hands.”
Fast-rising Czech Jakub Mensik and fifth-seeded Brit Jack Draper loom as potential third- and fourth-round opponents, respectively. De Minaur followed compatriots Alexei Popyrin, Daria Kasatkina and Ajla Tomljanovic into the second round.
Watch all the action from Roland-Garros live & on-demand on Stan Sport, with two courts in 4K. Coverage of select matches free-to-air on 9GemHD and streaming on 9Now.
