An in-form Alex De Minaur will look to continue his Wimbledon debut when he faces Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the second round. Join The Roar for live scores from 8:30pm (AEST).
The Australian has been in superb form across the grass court season, putting together a very solid run of results which gained him entry into the Wimbledon draw.
The ever-improving 19-year-old, after being beaten by Kyle Edmund in the first round of the French Open, has come away with a tournament victory in Nottingham and a run to the final in Surbiton, to go with a qualification for the ATP-level event in Eastbourne.
His debut match at Wimbledon would have brought with it nerves, as well as a tough opponent in recent Roland Garros semi-finalist Marco Cecchinato.
De Minaur won the match in four sets, bouncing back from a crucial second set tie breaker to take the remaining two sets 7-6, 6-4 under incredibly tense circumstances.
The win moves the Australian up the live rankings, and another here could well ensure him of direct entry into the US Open later this year.
He will need to be at his best though, with the defensive, scrapping game he has built his fast rise on coming into play from the baseline.
Court positioning will be crucial against Herbert, who is currently ranked 72 in the world. His lead-up form wasn’t so good, coming away with a failed qualification at the AEGON Championships before he moved to the quarter-finals against lowly ranked opponents at Antalya in Turkey.
The loss to Damir Dzumhur left him needing to bite back at Wimbledon, which he did, dominating Mischa Zverev in straight sets. It’s hard to get a read on his form though, given the struggles of the volleying German in 2018.
Hugues-Herbert has been to the third round of Wimbledon once, however, this is shaping as a tough challenge to go there again, despite his obvious experience advantage over De Minaur, who has played head and shoulders above his age in 2018.
Prediction
De Minaur will again need to be at his best against the dangerous Herbert, but his defensive skills from the back of the court and will to keep fighting through the drops in concentration put him right in this match.
De Minaur in five sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this second round match at The Championships from 8:30pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.
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