Spoiler:
Alex de Minaur captured his 20th win of the season Tuesday when he moved past former champion Stan Wawrinka on a wet day at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.
After rain delayed the start of play by nearly two hours and 30 minutes, De Minaur came out firing in the heavy conditions. The Australian limited errors from the baseline and comfortably tracked down Wawrinka’s strikes to advance after just 63 minutes.
"My attitude [was important],” said De Minaur. “[I didn't play] my best tennis to come out with on the first match on the clay. So I stayed tough, stayed solid, I played tough when I needed to and I found my way into the match and started playing better and better."
The No. 11 player in the PIF ATP Rankings is the fourth player this year to record 20 tour-level wins. Earlier this season the 25-year-old captured the title at the ATP 500 in Acapulco and arrived in Monte-Carlo off the back of a run to the fourth round in Miami.
De Minaur is making his fourth appearance in the Principality and has never advanced beyond the second round. He will aim to change that record when he next meets Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor.
“I think with every year of experience I look forward to the clay season even more,” said De Minaur. “I look at it in a way that there is no reason I can’t get good results. In the past, maybe mentally I wasn’t really ready to tell myself I was going to be good on the clay. That, plus I put on a little bit of weight, put on a bit of muscle.
“Clay-court tennis is always so physical and there is a lot of strength involved, so I’ve put on a couple of kilos and hopefully it helps me this clay season.”
After rain delayed the start of play by nearly two hours and 30 minutes, De Minaur came out firing in the heavy conditions. The Australian limited errors from the baseline and comfortably tracked down Wawrinka’s strikes to advance after just 63 minutes.
"My attitude [was important],” said De Minaur. “[I didn't play] my best tennis to come out with on the first match on the clay. So I stayed tough, stayed solid, I played tough when I needed to and I found my way into the match and started playing better and better."
The No. 11 player in the PIF ATP Rankings is the fourth player this year to record 20 tour-level wins. Earlier this season the 25-year-old captured the title at the ATP 500 in Acapulco and arrived in Monte-Carlo off the back of a run to the fourth round in Miami.
De Minaur is making his fourth appearance in the Principality and has never advanced beyond the second round. He will aim to change that record when he next meets Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor.
“I think with every year of experience I look forward to the clay season even more,” said De Minaur. “I look at it in a way that there is no reason I can’t get good results. In the past, maybe mentally I wasn’t really ready to tell myself I was going to be good on the clay. That, plus I put on a little bit of weight, put on a bit of muscle.
“Clay-court tennis is always so physical and there is a lot of strength involved, so I’ve put on a couple of kilos and hopefully it helps me this clay season.”
