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Australian wildcard recipient Alex De Minaur will be right up against it in the first round of the US Open when he takes on sixth seed Austrian, the powerful Dominic Thiem. Join The Roar for live scores from 1am (AEST).
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Update: Dominic Thiem was leading 6-4, 6-, 1-0 when the rain was postponed due to rain. It will resume as the first match on the Grandstand court at 1am (AEST) on Thursday morning – 11am Wednesday (local).
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De Minaur, just 18 years of age has already cracked the top 200 in the world and won his first grand slam match earlier this year at the Australian Open on the back of another wildcard in five sets.
He has been earmarked as the future of Australian tennis, but unlike Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic, he doesn’t appear to suffer from any attitude problems at this point.
De Minaur has a tendency to fight hard every time he steps on the court, and while he is still working hard to improve, there is plenty still to learn about the type of game he will play. Still, the signs have been impressive and it’s little wonder he has been rewarded with Tennis Australia’s wildcard selection for the US Open.
He couldn’t have fallen into a much tougher first round match though, with Thiem making a name for himself over the last 12 months on the back of outright power.
De Minaur’s form hasn’t been terrible though. He made the final of a challenger event a few weeks ago, although failed to qualify for last week’s tournament in Winston-Salem.
Thiem hits the cover off the ball more often than not, and proved that multiple times as he found hot form earlier in the year at the Australian Open and again at the French Open when he made the semi-final, beating Novak Djokovic in the process.
After a fourth round exit in Wimbledon though, his form has fallen away. Stuck in the tough half of the draw with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, he will need to use the first four rounds to regain that if he wants to compete with the two veterans in the quarter and semi finals.
Falling in the third round at Washington to Kevin Anderson, then in his first match at Montreal to Diego Schwartzman weren’t great results, but a straight sets domination from David Ferrer in the third at Cincinnati shows he is failing to improve, and fatigue after a long year may be starting to set in for the Austrian.
If he can find a way to get his serve on track, then he will be in with a chance, but every area of his game has been lacking over the last month.
The pair has never met before this match and the winner will take on either the cult hero Marcos Baghdatis or home town favourite Taylor Fritz.
Prediction
Thiem will win, but he will also be out to make a statement. De Minaur won’t pinch a set, but he might take a few to the death.
Thiem in straight sets.
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