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Rising star Alex de Minaur hopes he’ll have the ability to “carry it” towards world No.6 Stefanos Tsitsipas after dusting off the cobwebs in Australia’s ATP Cup loss to Spain.
De Minaur was gearing up for a large showdown towards world No.2 Rafael Nadal on Tuesday night time, however the 20-time grand slam champion was a late withdrawal with a stiff again.
It meant de Minaur was as an alternative pitted towards world No.13 Roberto Bautista Agut, and the Australian took the primary set earlier than slumping to a 4-6 6-4 6-4 loss.
De Minaur shall be again in motion once more on Wednesday when Australia tackle Greece, with the house aspect needing to win to maintain their ATP Cup title hopes alive.
John Millman will begin as scorching favorite towards world No.462 Michail Pervolarakis, whereas de Minaur’s Australian Open preparations shall be given a stern take a look at when he takes on the highly-fancied Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas holds a 3-0 edge over de Minaur in head-to-head battles, so the Australian shall be aiming to show the tables.
“He is a really high-level participant, he is up there for a cause,” de Minaur mentioned.
“I am wanting ahead to going on the market and testing myself.
“I really feel like (towards Bautista Agut) I used to be capable of sort of, in a method, mud a little bit of the nerves, cobwebs, and I will be able to go. Hopefully I can carry it.”
Though Australia misplaced 3-0 to Spain on the ATP Cup, the house nation fared a lot better within the different warm-up occasions for the Australian Open.
Matt Ebden, Jordan Thompson, James Duckworth, Alexei Popyrin, Andrew Harris, teenager Dane Sweeny, and Nick Kyrgios continued the surge of native successes within the males’s recreation with round-one wins through the Melbourne Summer season Collection on Tuesday.
Their triumphs adopted Chris O’Connell, Jason Kubler, Aleksandar Vukic, Max Purcell, Alex Bolt and Harry Bourchier as winners to date this week within the three Australian Open lead-up tournaments.
Tennis celebrity Ash Barty was additionally a part of the successful enjoyable on Tuesday night time, with the Australian world No.1 progressing to the final 16 of the Yarra Valley Traditional with a 6-3 6-3 win over Romanian Ana Bogdan.
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