Surging De Minaur Handed Tricky Draw In Eastbourne
Second seed Alex de Minaur will face a tricky opening test at the Viking International Eastbourne as he awaits the winner of Frances Tiafoe and wild card Liam Broady at the ATP 250 grass-court event.
De Minaur, who is seeking his first title on this surface to add to his four ATP Tour trophies, received a bye into the second round. The No. 22 player in the FedEx ATP Rankings will arrive in Eastbourne with momentum on his side after reaching a quarter-final in Stuttgart and two semi-finals at The Queen’s Club in singles and doubles (w/Norrie).
Sixth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina also landed in De Minaur’s section and looms as a potential quarter-final opponent. The Spaniard turned heads on clay with a run to his first Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros, but he will be contesting only his second tour-level main draw match on grass as he starts against a qualifier or lucky loser.
Big-serving Reilly Opelka, the fifth seed, and Queen’s Club finalist Cameron Norrie, the ninth seed, have also landed in the bottom half with De Minaur. Opelka awaits the winner of Marton Fucsovics and Aljaz Bedene in the second round, while Norrie starts against Aussie Alexei Popyrin in the first round. They could potentially meet in the quarter-finals.
[WATCH LIVE 2]World No. 16 Gael Monfils is the top seed in Eastbourne, and he will await the winner between two qualifiers or lucky losers in the second round. The Frenchman reached his only grass-court final here in Eastbourne in 2017 (l. Djokovic), and will be seeking his 11th ATP Tour title.
He could meet third seed Lorenzo Sonego in the semi-finals. The No. 26-ranked Italian will be seeking his second tour-level title on grass after his 2019 victory in Antalya (d. Kecmanovic). After a bye, Sonego will face the winner of John Millman and wild card Jay Clarke in the second round.
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