De Minaur well placed for Wimbledon after French Open run

Alex de Minaur is optimistic about the upcoming grass season despite losing his French Open quarter-final against Alexander Zverev on Thursday morning (AEST) in Paris.

The Australian fell in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-4, but it was a hard-fought tussle.

De Minaur had a set point in the second set and was up 4-0 in the tiebreak. He also managed to break Zverev three times, extracting 48 unforced errors from the German.

“I’m extremely proud of my efforts throughout the two weeks,” he declared.

“Even today I think I put up a hell of a fight in adverse conditions against a quality opponent.”

Switch in surfaces a boost for de Minaur

De Minaur was an unlikely candidate to make a deep run at Roland-Garros.

The world No.11 favours faster surfaces, yet he produced some excellent play over the last 10 days to make his second Grand Slam quarter-final.

The performance, which included an upset of No.4 seed Daniil Medvedev, has primed de Minaur for a strong Wimbledon campaign next month.

“I’m excited for the grass, excited to, you know, let the surface help me out a little bit out there,” the 25-year-old shared in his post-match press conference.

“I sure hope I’m not running as much on the grass.

“I’ll do my best to try to dictate a little bit more, and I’m hoping that my ball is going to penetrate a little bit more.

“It’s always a great part of the season for me, which I’m always looking forward to.

“We’ll see how it goes this year, because I’ve never gone so deep here in French. Hopefully that takes a lot of momentum and confidence on to the grass.”

De Minaur has plenty of points to gain at Wimbledon this year, having exited in the second round last time. Tennis bookmakers have him on the 10th line of betting to win the tournament a month out, putting the Aussie on +3000.

These are some of the best odds de Minaur has had leading into a Grand Slam. However, he’s still a way behind betting favourites Carlos Alcaraz (+137) and world No.1 Jannik Sinner (+162).

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