De Minaur survives Mensik assault to achieve Vienna semis | 26 October, 2024 | All Information | Information and Options | Information and Occasions
Alex de Minaur bounced again to beat the proficient Czech Jakub Mensik, establishing a Vienna semi-final towards the in-form Karen Khachanov.
Vienna, Austria, 26 October 2024 | Matt Trollope
Alex de Minaur’s return to type continues, with the Australian No.1 advancing to the ATP 500 semi-finals in Vienna.
De Minaur battled for greater than two and a half hours to beat proficient Czech teenager Jakub Mensik, profitable 6-7(2) 6-3 6-4.
Mensik, 19, was a qualifier for the hard-court indoor match, and by profitable the opening match he prolonged his streak to 9 straight units.
He additionally held two break factors within the first recreation of the second set, earlier than De Minaur steadied the ship on Friday night within the Austrian capital.
In opposition to his opponent’s 47 winners, together with 15 aces, De Minaur managed to win his forty fourth match in 2024, advancing to his fourth semi-final of the season – nevertheless the primary since ‘s-Hertogenbosch in June.
De Minaur took the match within the closing recreation with out dropping some extent to arrange a match towards Karen Khachanov, final week’s ATP Almaty champion who’s unbeaten in her final seven matches.
It has been greater than two years since they met, they tied 1-1.
De Minaur is 3-0 in ATP semifinals this 12 months.
This week in Vienna represents encouraging progress for the 25-year-old Aussie, whose season has been hampered by accidents since tearing a collarbone throughout her fourth-round win at Wimbledon.
That is solely his third match since then; impressively, he has reached no less than the quarterfinals in all of them.
De Minaur closed to inside 165 factors of eighth-placed Andrey Rublev the race to the ATP Finals. Rublev misplaced his quarterfinal match on the similar match in Basel, Switzerland, to Ben Shelton.
De Minaur by no means certified for the eight-man occasion that ended the season, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a chance in what has been a career-best 12 months.
At present ranked ninth, De Minaur reached world No. 6 in July after reaching the final eight at Wimbledon. He reached the second week of all 4 majors in 2024, together with consecutive quarterfinals at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.
He’s now simply two wins away from his third title of the season, after victories in Acapulco and ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
