Alex de Minaur made a winning start to his Next Gen ATP Finals campaign with a 4-2 3-4 (5) 4-1 4-1 victory over Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Wednesday morning (AEDT).
The Australian burst out of the blocks in the abbreviated format, earning a service break in the third game of the match to take the opening set.
World No.87 Davidovich Fokina showed plenty of fighting spirit in the second set, winning a tense tiebreaker on his third set point to level the contest against the top seed.
But De Minaur, who has risen to No.18 in the ATP rankings after three tournament victories in 2019, showed his class in the final two sets.
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After dropping his opening service game of the third set, the 20-year-old regained his composure to win eight of the last nine games to seal victory in his first Group A outing in Milan.
“I just had to get in my head that I played a good second set,” De Minaur said.
“He just came up with big shots in big moments but I had to move on and remember what I was doing well the whole match.”
Meanwhile, Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic defeated Norwegian Casper Ruud in straight sets in the other Group A match.
Sweden’s Mikael Ymer will take on Frenchman Ugo Humbert before American Frances Tiafoe plays Italy’s Jannik Sinner in Group B action from 5.30am on Wednesday (AEDT).
