Alex de Minaur storms into fourth round

Alex de Minaur entered the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals at the Miami Open 2024 tennis tournament while Alexei Popyrin got knocked out at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in Florida on Monday.

De Minaur, 10th in the ATP tennis rankings, got the better of world No. 25 Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 7(7)-6(3), 6-4 in his Round of 16 match that lasted one hour and 49 minutes.

The Australian tennis player made his way to the fourth round in Miami for the first time in his career. The win also allowed De Minaur to extend his lead as the player with the most ATP main-draw singles wins in 2024.

The 25-year-old will face world No. 57 Fabian Marozsan of Hungary for a spot in the quarter-finals of the men’s singles.

Marozsan had earlier defeated De Minaur’s Aussie compatriot Alexei Popyrin 7-5, 6-3 in the third round.

Meanwhile, it was a mixed day in the office for Australian tennis players in the doubles category.

Top-seeded Indo-Australian men’s doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden beat Monaco’s Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski of Poland in straight sets 7-5, 7-6(3).

They will now be up against another Australian John-Patrick Smith and his Dutch partner Sem Verbeek in the quarter-finals. Smith and Verbeek had earlier defeated Netherlands’ Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic of Croatia 6-3, 6-3.

The all-Australian men’s pair of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson failed to get past Ivan Dodig of Croatia and USA’s Austin Krajicek, losing 6-3, 6-2. Thanasi Kokkinakis, partnering Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, also lost 7-5, 7(7)-6(4) to Great Britain’s Joe Salisbury and USA’s Rajeev Ram.

In women’s doubles, Ellen Perez and USA’s Nicole Melichar-Martinez’s campaign also came to an end in the second round. They lost to all-Ukrainian pair Dayana Yastremska and Anhelina Kalinina 7-6(6), 6-4.

The Miami Open 2024 tennis tournament will conclude on March 31.