Alex De Minaur strolls to third title of 2019 with impressive victory over Adrian Mannarino in Zhuhai

Ben Spratt

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Alex De Minaur strolls to third title of 2019 with impressive victory over Adrian Mannarino in Zhuhai image

Alex de Minaur claimed a 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 win over Adrian Mannarino in the final of the Zhuhai Championships to earn his third ATP Tour title of the year.

Only Rafael Nadal has collected more championships in 2019 than the young Australian, who wore his opponent down on Sunday.

De Minaur had earlier beaten Andy Murray in an impressive, energetic display, before dumping out a pair of higher seeds in Borna Coric and Roberto Bautista Agut.

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The 20-year-old, who is set to rise to 25th in the rankings, forged 13 break point opportunities against Mannarino but only took one.

That came from the final point of the match, with De Minaur getting the job done despite a scoreboard that perhaps gave Mannarino more credit than he deserved.

“It was a really tough match. I had a lot of chances and I felt like Adrian just played better than I did in those moments," De Minaur said post-match.

"I just told myself I had to try and take control of the point and just try to dictate as much as I could and I hit a great ball and I'm happy it ended there,

“He's one of the toughest guys to play, very tricky, and in that first set I had so many chances and I wasn't able to break him, so I just had to make sure I stayed calm and just kept on backing myself, stay positive and I was able to play some great points to turn the tie-break around and that first set was huge.”

The win ensures De Minaur will enter the Asian swing as the number one ranked Aussie ahead of Nick Kyrgios, who has caught the attention of a brand new sport after he was handed a probational suspension by the ATP.

 

Ben Spratt