De Minaur, Popyrin advance to Monte-Carlo quarter-finals

Australian tennis stars Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin both advanced to the quarter-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters in Monaco on Thursday (local time), beating No.9 seed Daniil Medvedev and No.4 seed Casper Ruud respectively.

For de Minaur, it is his second-straight appearance in the last eight in Monte-Carlo, while for Popyrin, he is through to the quarter-finals of an ATP Masters 1000 event for just the third time in his career.

Tennis betting sites had de Minaur as a strong favourite to prevail over Medvedev and he did not disappoint, racing past his Russian opponent 6-2, 6-2 in just an hour and 12 minutes.

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“We’ve played each other many times and played each other on basically every surface,” the world No.10 said after breaking serve in seven of eight return games against Medvedev.

“I tried to draw a lot on our last match at Roland Garros (in 2024) and see what worked for me.

“I thought I executed really well, I was smart and tactically played the right way today.

“It’s taken me a while in my career, but I finally understand what I need to do to be effective on this surface.

“I can be dangerous on this surface, so I’m very happy to play here and start off the clay swing with some good matches.”

Popyrin’s victory was far less expected, however, with Bet365 pricing the Australian No.2 as a $3.50 underdog heading into his clash against defending finalist Ruud.

But the 25-year-old dug deep and played some of his best tennis in months, striking 48 winners to 45 unforced errors and saving two match points as he won the last four games in a row to edge out Ruud 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in just shy of three hours.

Earlier in the day, fifth seed Jack Draper was upset by Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, with the Brit losing in three tight sets.

Seventh seed Andrey Rublev was also sent on his way, defeated in straight sets by No.12 seed Arthur Fils, who has now made the last eight in all three ATP Masters 100 events this year.

Title favourites Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas were untroubled, both advancing to the quarter-finals with routine straight-sets wins.

Leading bookmakers price Alcaraz at $1.80 to win the tournament now, with Tsitsipas back on $5.

De Minaur is on the third line at $10 across tennis betting apps, while Popyrin remains a longshot at $29.

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