Alex de Minaur continued his strong start to the 2019 ATP Tour season by reaching the Sydney International semi-finals on Thursday night. The 19-year-old #NextGenATP star knocked out fellow Australian Jordan Thompson 7-6(4), 6-3 in one hour and 54 minutes.
“I’m very happy,” said De Minaur. “It’s never easy coming out and playing a fellow Australian teammate and a guy that I have grown up with, someone that I have looked up to as an older brother… [But I’m] very happy with my efforts here. I knew coming in it was never going to be an easy task, and he was going to leave it all out there. I’m very proud of my efforts.”
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After a nervous start from both players, fifth seed De Minaur took a 5-3 lead in the first set. However, 24-year-old Thompson broke to love in the 10th game and went on to take a 4/1 advantage in the tie-break before De Minaur regrouped.
Having exchanged breaks at the start of the second set, De Minaur broke for a 5-3 advantage and soon wrapped up his fifth win in six matches this year (5-1 record).
The 2018 ATP Newcomer of the Year will next challenge fourth-seeded Frenchman and 2011 titlist Gilles Simon, who scraped past John Millman of Australia 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(3) in two hours and 42 minutes. Millman served for the match at 6-5 in the deciding set, but was broken by Simon, who reached last week’s Tata Open Maharashtra semi-finals.
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