Alex de Minaur has disposed of a familiar opponent to rattle into the last-32 of Wimbledon in the sunshine, before reaffirming his desire to “go deep” into the tournament.
The Australian No.1 overcame a couple of concerns in the third set against Spain’s Jaume Munar, a clay-court specialist he beat comfortably at the French Open, before repeating the dose on Thursday on the No.3 showcourt, winning 6-2 6-2 7-5.
Munar, whose serve was broken eight times by the No.9 seed, was no match for de Minaur but the Sydneysider was left a little frustrated by his failure to not get the job done more convincingly in the third set when he was broken three times, including once when serving for the match.
But there was never any realistic doubt about the outcome as de Minaur wrapped up victory in just over a couple of hours to set up the prospect of a third round against Thanasi Kokkinakis, should he beat French qualifier Lucas Pouille later in the day.
De Minaur had looked in the mood to race to victory so quickly against an opponent struggling with double-fault trouble – Munar coughed up nine in total – that he would be able to finish before his girlfriend, British No.1 Katie Boulter, started her all-British election day special against Harriet Dart.
“I might have made it for the start if I hadn’t got broken in the last set,” he told the crowd afterwards.
“But I’ll shower, cool down and do my best to get over there to support Katie.
“This is always the surface I’ve enjoyed playing on, it’s special to play at Wimbledon and hopefully I can go deep into the tournament now.”
Looking comfortable from the start against the world No.63 who he used to play against regularly as a junior when living in Spain, de Minaur grabbed an immediate break to take command and sailed away to a two-set lead without giving up a sniff of a break point.
He had the chance to seal the deal at 3-5 on Munar’s serve, but missed out on three match points before the Spaniard, out of the blue, broke him for the first time to love. It was, though, just a short reprieve before de Minaur broke again and then sealed his triumph with his eighth ace to go with his 23 winners.
