Australian Open: De Minaur back in the fourth round

Australian Alex De Minaur, the No 22 seed, won in straight sets on Saturday against Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi (7-6, 6-2, 6-1) and so qualified for the fourth round of the Australian Open. It’s the second straight year that De Minaur is reaching the last 16 in Melbourne, where he was beaten in 2021 by Jannik Sinner.

De Minaur, ranked No 24, will now play the winner of the match between Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (n°27) and Serb Novak Djokovic (n°4). In the previous rounds, Alex De Minaur had the last word against qualifier Yu Hsiou Hsu (6-2, 6-2, 6-3) and Frenchman Adrian Mannarino (7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4, 6-1).

“I think ultimately if you want to go deep, and you want to really take it to the best players in the world, that’s the game plan. I mean, you’ve got to step it up. It’s no secret that against the best in the world you can’t just put the ball in the court and wait for them to miss, because that’s just not gonna happen. Yeah, it is a conscious effort, but I think today I did what I needed to do and got the job done, so we move on. Happy with that.”

Read also

“Bring this Alex more often” to the ATP Tour – De Minaur at his best at Davis Cup as he embraces leadership role

Tennis Majors

In the previous rounds, Bonzi, ranked No 48, edged out Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci (4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-4) and came back against Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta to upset the No 14 seed (4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1, 7-6 (4)).

Read also

Another seed, Carreño Busta, falls as Bonzi makes third round

Tennis Majors

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):

• Andy Murray vs. Roberto Bautista Agut
• Alexei Popyrin vs. Ben Shelton
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Novak Djokovic
• J.J. Wolf vs. Michael Mmoh: saturday
• Tommy Paul vs. Jenson Brooksby: saturday
• Holger Rune (9) beat Ugo Humbert: 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (5)
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Daniel Evans (25): 6-4, 6-2, 6-3
• Sebastian Korda (29) beat Daniil Medvedev (7): 7-6 (7), 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Karen Khachanov (18) beat Frances Tiafoe (16): 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9)
• Hubert Hurkacz (10) beat Denis Shapovalov (20): 7-6 (3), 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 6-3
• Jiri Lehecka beat Cameron Norrie (11): 6-7 (8), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
• Felix Auger-Aliassime (6) beat Francisco Cerundolo (28): 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
• Yoshihito Nishioka (31) beat Mackenzie McDonald: 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-2
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (3) beat Tallon Griekspoor: 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-3
• Jannik Sinner (15) beat Marton Fucsovics: 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0