Alex de Minaur defeats Denis Shapovalov to reach Madrid’s final 16, recording his 24th match win to tie Carlos Alcaraz for most ATP Tour wins this year.
Madrid, Spain, 30 April 2025 | AAP / Tennis Australia
Alex de Minaur has charged into the fourth round of the Madrid Open with a convincing performance as electricity returned to Spain.
The Australian No.1 took less than 90 minutes to defuse big-serving Canadian Denis Shapovalov with a 6-3 7-6(3) win on Court Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
Sixth-seed De Minaur and Shapovalov had been due to play on Monday night but were one of the 22 matches postponed after the Iberian peninsula was hit by a blackout.
The pair returned to the same arena to open Tuesday’s play and De Minaur was soon in control of the match. He broke in the fifth game of the first set after Shapovalov double-faulted on break point, and again in the ninth, closing out the set with a love game.
The second set went to a tiebreak, but De Minaur took that easily to draw level with Carlos Alcaraz with a tour-leading 24th win of the season.
“He’s got tremendous firepower from every part of the court, and I had to do my best to neutralise it, and not let him dictate as much as he could,” said De Minaur, who has won all five ATP-level matches against Shapovalov.
READ: De Minaur makes top-10 surge after Monte Carlo
The 26-year-old relied on trademark speed and efficiency as he withstood 23 winners from the big-hitting Canadian, who recorded 37 unforced errors against 15 from De Minaur.
De Minaur is now into his fifth consecutive Masters 1000 last-16 and will next face 10th seed Lorenzo Musetti, who defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5 7-6(3).
It provides a chance to atone for De Minaur’s loss to Musetti in the recent Monte Carlo semifinals, where the Italian required three sets to advance.
Currently sitting one spot below his career-best ranking at world No.7, De Minaur is building pleasing consistency at ATP Masters 1000 level.
He has reached the fourth round or better of his past five tournaments at that level and alongside Grigor Dimitrov, is one of only two players reach the fourth round of every ATP Masters 1000 tournament this year.
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