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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 an enormous showdown towards world No.2 Rafael Nadal on Tuesday evening, 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 will likely be again in motion once more on Wednesday when Australia tackle Greece, with the house facet needing to win to maintain their ATP Cup title hopes alive.
John Millman will begin as sizzling favorite towards world No.462 Michail Pervolarakis, whereas de Minaur’s Australian Open preparations will likely be given a stern check 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 will likely be aiming to show the tables.
“He is a really high-level participant, he is up there for a purpose,” 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 approach, 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 significantly 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 sport with round-one wins throughout the Melbourne Summer time Sequence on Tuesday.
Their triumphs adopted Chris O’Connell, Jason Kubler, Aleksandar Vukic, Max Purcell, Alex Bolt and Harry Bourchier as winners up to now this week within the three Australian Open lead-up tournaments.
Tennis celebrity Ash Barty was additionally a part of the profitable enjoyable on Tuesday evening, with the Australian world No.1 progressing to the final 16 of the Yarra Valley Basic with a 6-3 6-3 win over Romanian Ana Bogdan.
Australian Related Press
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