A few hours waiting for the Paris rain to stop did little to prevent Alex de Minaur kick-starting his Roland Garros campaign in style on Tuesday afternoon.
After play finally got underway on Court Simonne-Mathieu at around 4:10 p.m. local time, the 11th-seeded Australian raced past #NextGenATP Alex Michelsen 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 to seal his second-round spot at the clay-court major. De Minaur converted eight of 13 break points he earned, according to Infosys Stats, to advance to face Jaume Munar or Roberto Bautista Agut.
Speedy Demon đź’¨
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 28, 2024
In only 1 hour and 48 minutes, @alexdeminaur defeats Michelsen 6-1 6-0 6-2!@rolandgarros | #rolandgarros pic.twitter.com/kr3YNjjKMD
De Minaur saved two break points in the opening game of the match but barely looked back from then on, ultimately wrapping victory in just one hour and 48 minutes against Roland Garros debutant Michelsen. With his win, the No. 11 in the PIF ATP Rankings avenged his loss to Michelsen in February in Los Cabos and tied the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1.
It is the fourth time De Minaur has reached the second round in eight appearances at Roland Garros. He has never reached the third round in Paris, but will hope to break that duck to build on a solid European clay season during which he notched five ATP Masters 1000 match wins across Monte-Carlo and Rome.
Despite Michelsen’s loss, Taylor Fritz took the tally of Americans in the second round to six by rallying past Federico Coria 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1. The 12th seed put together an impressive display full of clean baseline hitting to down Argentina’s Coria in two hours, 28 minutes on Court 9.
Fritz is now 11-5 for the year on clay, a tally which includes reaching his first tour-level final on the surface in Munich in April. The 26-year-old has twice reached the third round at Roland Garros, but he will be hopeful of forging a deeper run this year having reached the semi-finals in Madrid and the quarter-finals in Rome.
Next up for Fritz in Paris is a clash with Dusan Lajovic. The Serbian on Monday evening notched the 200th tour-level win of his career by holding off Roman Safiullin 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-4.
The 31st seed, Mariano Navone, also turned around an early deficit to advance on Tuesday. The Argentine, who has enjoyed such a dramatic rise in the PIF ATP Rankings this year that he is the first player to be seeded in his major main-draw debut, defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 5-7, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. It was the former World No. 10 Carreno Busta’s first tour-level match for more than 15 months after an elbow injury.
Navone will take on Tomas Machac in the second round. The Geneva finalist overcame Nuno Borges 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-3 for his maiden Roland Garros win.
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