Alex de Minaur jokes about being a “clay dog” these days, and he certainly looked perfectly at home on the Roland Garros red dirt as he mauled, scrapped and finally chased off Laslo Djere to successfully launch his French Open bid.
And hours after ‘Demon’ had opened up with his predictable straight-sets win, he found a terrific Aussie terrier for his support act as Adam Walton forged past German Max Marterer 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-3 2-6 6-2 for his second grand slam win.
De Minaur is making a welcome habit of defeating the players he really ought to beat in the majors, and a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (8-6) victory over Serbian world No.59 Djere on Tuesday was his 20th consecutive win in a slam over an opponent outside the top-30.
Fortunately, not even treatment on his toe-strapped right foot at the start of the third was enough to hold up the world No.9’s fleet-footed progress, even if he did get pulled into a bit of a dogfight, having to save four set points near the death.
Djere, who’d been 5-2 up in the third, squandered two set points when serving at 5-4 and another pair when 6-4 up in the tiebreak, but de Minaur’s unquenchable spirit enabled him to escape to victory in just over two-and-a-half hours.
“It wasn’t pretty, but ultimately got the win, and that’s all that matters,” he smiled.
Talking of ‘not pretty’, he was also quick to apologise to the world for the sight of his right foot being the subject of some loving, lingering close-ups by the cameras of the host broadcasters.
“Oh, jeez. I’m sorry for everyone that who had to see that. That’s not a pretty sight,” grinned ‘Demon’.
“Actually, it was nothing major. I often get my toes taped up before matches. One that wasn’t taped up was rubbing against the tape.”
Determined to build on his quarter-final breakthrough here last year, de Minaur, amid his most promising claycourt season yet, will have a familiar friend backing him all the way again in the shape of French youngster Paul, the ‘super fan’ who cheered him on through rain and shine last year.
“Yeah, 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,” smiled de Minaur.
“It’s great to have him around again. Hopefully we can have a blast again this year.”
De Minaur will next face Kazakhstan’s unpredictable Alexander Bublik, who prevented any prospect of an all-Australian second-round clash by defeating Sydneysider James Duckworth 6-2 6-4 6-4.
Bublik’s 16 aces and 41 winners left de Minaur to acknowledge: “He’s going to be extremely dangerous. He’s definitely found his game as of late.”
With Alexei Popyrin also victorious on Monday, Brisbane’s unsung Walton ensured there’ll be three Aussie men in the last 64, as the 26-year-old, who last year was asking himself if he was really good enough to make the grade, again offered a positive answer.
After two agonising five-set defeats in slams, the world No.91 had been fearing a third when Marterer, an experienced qualifier, levelled at two sets all.
“That definitely was on my mind,” admitted Walton.
“I felt physically, I was battling a little bit. But I went to the toilet at the end of the set, and came out with a bit more energy. I told myself, ‘you gotta go for it again. Just one more set, that’s all you gotta play’. And luckily, I got off to a good start.”
After prevailing in three hours 40 minutes, he’ll next face 17th seed Andrey Rublev, who defeated South African Lloyd Harris in four sets.
Was No.2 seed Coco Gauff so nervous about facing Olivia Gadecki that it was the reason she forgot to take her racquets to the court? Even the 23-year-old Gold Coast player had to laugh that, whatever the reason for Coco’s absent-mindedness, “it seems like that was the only way I was gonna win the match.”
Eventually, with weapons safely returned, Gauff just took the racquet out of Gadecki’s hands, waltzing to a 6-2 6-2 victory in just 71 minutes.
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