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Fresh from his breakthrough victory over Rafael Nadal in the United Cup, Australian ace Alex de Minaur has taken down former US Open champion Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match at the Kooyong Classic.
De Minaur powered his way up a break at 4-3 in the first set before experiencing an unexpected injury – accidentally swiping himself with his racquet, causing blood to flow from his left knee.
A medical timeout was called to allow the trainer to patch up the cut.
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Fortunately, shrugging off any concerns, de Minaur continued to hold serve to claim the opening set 6-4 in just under 50 minutes.
During the break in play, de Minaur removed the bandage, allaying any fears of further injury.
“The bleeding has stopped, the paramedics have been stood down,” commentator Dave Culbert said on SBS’ coverage.
Similar to the first set, de Minaur broke the 2020 US Open champion midway through the second before closing out the match.
With his second straight victory over a grand slam champion, following his upset win over Nadal last week, de Minaur’s confidence continues to build ahead of the Australian Open.
“I’m excited. It’s my home slam, going to be great to play in front of such an amazing crowd, a home environment,” he told SBS.
“I’m just going to try to bring all that energy, and get fired up and hopefully put on a show for the crowd.”
Asked if he was fine-tuning any parts of his game before next week’s slam, de Minuar said his only target was to be mentally prepared to go one step further than last year’s fourth-round effort.
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“I think what I’ve been doing great so far is that I’ve got my game plan and I know how I want to play very well, so more than anything I’m working on concentration, on focus,” he said.
“I’ve still got plenty of areas to work on, like, you know, after breaking in the second set, getting broken back, you know, those are … the little tweaks here and there that I’m trying to work on. It’s a learning progress. I’m happy with how things are going. It was good to adapt to the conditions.
“It’s no secret I want to perform at home, you know. That’s, I think, what any Aussie wants to do – as I have done my whole career.
“I’ve kept on trying to improve, kept on trying to work on myself, and take it step by step. I know it’s not an overnight thing. So I think as every year passes I’ve felt better coming into the Australian Open, so hopefully this year I can do better than last year.”
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