Back to Tennis
Breaking 🎾 Tennis 3 min read

De Minaur advances at Wimbledon - and his journey to the final just got easier

AA

Aaron Murphy

Published 3 hours ago

Alex De Minaur enjoyed a very easy first round victory at Wimbledon and won't meet a top-four seed before the semi-finals after number 4 seed Ben Shelton was dumped out in a shock loss.

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/de-minaur-alex/EZgZ9Xfh/"]De Minaur[/a] dropped only one game across the second and third sets in a [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/burruchaga-r-a-CE7B5N90/de-minaur-a-EZgZ9Xfh/?mid=tCEswGXI"]7-6(5) 6-1 6-0[/a] victory over Argentina's rank no. 65 [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/burruchaga-roman-andres/CE7B5N90/"]Roman Burrachaga[/a] after a sluggish start in which he dropped his first service game of the match. [/p][p]There was very much a World Cup flavour to the match with the game being played one day after the 40-year anniversary of Burrachaga's father, Jorge, scoring the winning goal for Argentina in the 1986 FIFA World Cup final against West Germany. [/p][p]Burrachaga's rally game struggled against the impactful forehand of De Minaur and his defences were shattered after losing a first set tiebreak on court number three, with the Australian number five seed drawing a lot of confidence from the tiebreak win and running rampant thereafter.[/p][p]De Minaur's victory has set up a second round meeting with rank no. 40 Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, against whom De Minaur has a five-match winning streak dating back to 2022, two of which were on grass. [/p][embed guid="2090298f-421d-42fe-b1df-ee5d10dcfafa" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNCeaeI5CoM" social-type="youtube" /][p]Should he make it that far, the 27-year-old will not be meeting a top-four seed until the semi-finals at the very earliest after American Ben Shelton [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/finland-s-virtanen-shocks-fourth-seed-shelton-in-wimbledon-first-round/MmUZVBe3/"]lost a four-and-a-half hour epic[/a] to rank no. 140 [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/virtanen-otto/hnYnFaTm/"]Otto Virtanen[/a].[/p][p]It was just the third Grand Slam victory of Virtanen's career and means De Minaur is not likely to be tested until he potentially meets Italy's Flavio Cobolli in the fourth round. [/p][p]Cobolli was leading two sets to one when his game was interrupted by bad light and, should he advance, he'll take on another Australian after James Duckworth defeated Tallon Griekspoor [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/duckworth-j-2JWHPUUb/griekspoor-t-f3zfMU5i/?mid=fB2X3urC"]6-4 4-6 7-5 6-4[/a] in his first round match.[/p][p]Duckworth and De Minaur were the only two Aussie men to advance to the second round of the eight to enter the draw.[/p][p]Alexei Popyrin lost in straights to number 13 seed Jiri Lehecka, Thanasi Kokkinakis lost a five-set epic to number ten seed Alexander Bublik, Adam Walton fell to Croatia's Dino Prizmic in four sets, Aleksandar Vukic lost to American Jenson Brooksby in straights, Rinki Hijikata was edged out in five by Dutchman Jesper De Jong, and qualifier Dane Sweeny failed to win a set against 35-year-old wildcard entrant Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria. [/p][infobox id="e4d8200d-597f-48d7-83c2-d394f1217426" /][infobox id="d39bc573-b9dd-4b87-acb9-2de1f22d36c7" /]

Related stories

⚽ Football New

'Tournament begins now': Thiaw puts group travails behind him as Senegal take on Belgium

Josh Donaldson at Seattle Stadium
⚽ Football New

Egypt's Mohamed Salah returns to training ahead of knockout round match

Reuters
⚽ Football New

Messi will score more goals but I want the trophy: Mbappe

Reuters
⚽ Football New

Didier Deschamps please with France win but admits there is plenty to improve on

Reuters
⚽ Football New

'I don't believe we are the favourites': Pochettino downplays USA expectations

Reuters
⚽ Football New

Graham Potter admits not even 'perfect' Sweden would have beaten France

Reuters