Alex de Minaur was not at his best against French veteran Adrian Mannarino as the fourth day of Wimbledon began with the sun rising and the mercury rising, but he was good enough.
The fifth seed Australian demolished his potentially troublesome left-handed opponent 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and 49 minutes on Thursday.
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De Minaur won the first two sets in 38 minutes each, breaking twice in the first set and three times in the second.
His own serve faltered at times and he broke in every set, with his second serve being particularly vulnerable.
There was no such flaw in the third, although he had to survive a long serve with the score 2-2, which included five deuces.
He followed to break his depressed opponent.
That’s essentially it: Mannarino, 38, showed no signs of coming back from two sets down and a break down.
De Minaur held on again and broke to love again.
Reliable Australian support
With Maya Joynt and then James Duckworth following him onto Court 3, the Australians gave De Minaur solid support.
They were rewarded with a better performance than his nerve-wracking first round win over Roman Andres Burruchaga at the same arena.
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Getting better as the tournament progresses is the goal of every competitor, and de Minaur is achieving that goal so far.
“I definitely think I started better, I had more intention, more confidence in what I need to do,” de Minaur said, adding that he was “very excited and very grateful for the opportunity to play good tennis in great weather here in London.”
“I just love it here and I hope I can stay here for a long time.”
De Minaur’s third-round opponent will be either Kamil Majcszak, who recently beat him unexpectedly in the final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, marking the Pole’s first win in three meetings, or American Zak Svajda, whom de Minaur has never faced.
AARP