De Minaur’s injury return ends in Antwerp quarter-finals

Top seed Alex de Minaur has crashed out of the European Open, losing 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to Frenchman Hugo Gaston on Friday in Antwerp.

De Minaur was playing in his first match back on the ATP Tour since the US Open, with the Australian taking time off to treat a hip injury originally suffered at Wimbledon in July.

He had begun well, defeating Roberto Carballes Baena in the round of 16 at the ATP 250 event in Belgium, but Gaston’s attacking tennis was too much for the world No.9 in the quarter-finals.

Gaston struck 36 winners to de Minaur’s 26, while the Aussie also made an uncharacteristic 33 unforced errors over the course of the two-hour, nine-minute match.

Perhaps the highlight of the match came in the sixth game of the opening set, when Gaston pulled off a shot-of-the-year contender.

Having been pulled to the net by a de Minaur dropshot, Gaston could only drive the ball into de Minaur’s hitting zone. The Australian volleyed a deep lob over Gaston’s head, which he tore after and chased down deep behind the baseline, before hitting a spectacular reverse smash of sorts up the line for a winner.

De Minaur’s loss puts him at risk of not qualifying for the ATP Final in Turin next month, as he currently sits No.9 in the race, 275 points behind Andrey Rublev.

Losses to Rublev and Casper Ruud on Friday over in the Stockholm Open helped de Minaur’s cause, however, meaning the seventh and eighth-placed contenders will not pull further ahead of him.

Grigor Dimitrov, currently 10th in the race, has a chance of gaining on de Minaur though, with the Bulgarian through to the semi-finals in Stockholm.

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