De Minaur Puts Foot Down In Rotterdam
Australian Alex de Minaur maintained his strong start to the season Monday, downing David Goffin 6-0, 6-3 to reach the second round at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament.
The World No. 34 arrives in Rotterdam off the back of a personal-best performance at the Australian Open, where he advanced to the fourth round in Melbourne for the first time.
Fuelled with confidence, de Minaur dictated throughout against Goffin at the ATP 500 event. He broke five times, demonstrating great movement to force the Belgian into errors, while also powering his flat groundstrokes through the court to advance after 75 minutes. With his victory, the 22-year-old has improved his ATP Head2Head record against the World No. 47 to 3-0.
“I think I played really well,” de Minaur said. “I played exactly how I wanted to. My coach and I set up a plan about how we wanted to play this match and I managed to execute it. It is a very good feeling. Mentally I thought I was very solid and positive and that is one of the main aspects I am trying to focus on this year.”
[FOLLOW ACTION]De Minaur, who is making his second appearance in Rotterdam, is now 6-3 on the season, having also earned ATP Cup wins against World No. 6 Matteo Berrettini and Frenchman Ugo Humbert.
The five-time tour-level titlist will next face Mackenzie McDonald after the American cruised past eighth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-3, 6-2 in 67 minutes.
McDonald, currently at a career-high No. 49 in the ATP Rankings, fired five aces and won 79 per cent (31/39) of his first-serve points en route to his victory over the Georgian. The 26-year-old was making his debut at the indoor-hard tournament and now leads Basilashvili 1-0 in their ATP Head2Head series.