Mexican Open: De Minaur breaks 10-match losing streak against Tsitsipas to make semis

Australian Alex de Minaur, the No 3 seed, advanced to the semi-finals of the Mexican Open by beating Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 5 seed, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 at the Princess Mundo Imperial Resort in Acapulco on Thursday night.

Heading into the match, one stat was glaringly obvious: De Minaur and Tsitsipas’ head-to-head record. The Greek led De Minaur 10-0 in their meetings at the ATP level, with seven of those victories coming in the past three years.

As the match began, it seemed as though the pair’s head-to-head would further swing in Tsitsipas’ favour. De Minaur was only able to manage one game in the opening set, with Tsitsipas capitalising on the Aussie’s weak second serve to win 89 percent of second serve return points.

However, a tight Tsitsipas soon began spraying errors, while De Minaur kept his own game solid and found his range from the back of the court. The result was a clinical 6-3, 6-3 score line across the two remaining sets, with the No 3 seed booking his spot in the semi-finals and gaining his first victory over Tsitsipas in 11 attempts.

I would like to say that no one beats me 11 times in a row.

“Every time I’ve got to play him I get reminded about my (head-to-head) in the matchup,” De Minaur said as quoted by the ATP Tour. “I’m glad I got one on the board. I would like to say that no one beats me 11 times in a row, but hey… Stefanos has had my number for a very long time, so I’m glad I was able to get one back.”

With the win, De Minaur through to his 23rd semi-final at the ATP level (15-7 record) and he is the first defending champion to reach the semi-finals the next year since David Ferrer did the same in 2013.

De Minaur, ranked No 9, will face Jack Draper next.

In the previous rounds of the Acapulco tournament, the Australian won against Japanese Taro Daniel (6-2, 6-1) and Austrian Sebastian Ofner (6-1, 6-3).

Tsitsipas, ranked No 12, won against Russian Roman Safiullin (6-3, 6-4) and Italian qualifier Flavio Cobolli (6-3, 7-6 (6)) earlier in the tournament.

Acapulco ATP 500, other quarter-final matches (Princess Mundo Imperial Resort, hard, USD 2,206,080):

• Jack Draper beat Miomir Kecmanovic: 6-2, 6-2
• Casper Ruud vs. Ben Shelton
• Dominik Koepfer vs. Holger Rune