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Gritty victory improves de Minaur’s Australian Open title hopes

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Alex de Minaur
Alex de Minaur has improved his odds of winning the Australian Open with a gritty four-set victory over No.31 seed Francisco Cerundolo on Saturday night in Melbourne.

The Australian now sits at $21 to win the title across tennis betting sites – the fifth line of betting, behind top contenders Jannik Sinner ($1.90), Carlos Alcaraz ($3.25), Alexander Zverev ($6.50) and Novak Djokovic ($7.50) at Bet365.

De Minaur fell behind early after Cerundolo came back from a break down to win a messy first set containing 53 unforced errors between the two.

However, the No.8 seed dug his heels in and won the next three sets, prevailing 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-3, 6-3 in three hours, 53 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

The 25-year-old was the first to admit that it was not his best tennis on display against Cerundolo.

“Geez, I’d rather win ugly any day over losing pretty, right?” he said.

“Ultimately I lived to fight another day. My next one I’ll make sure I bring a better level.

“I feel like I learned a lot. I reckon this is probably the first match that I’ve played here in Australia where I’ve felt, like today, that I didn’t feel comfortable.

“I felt all of a sudden a little bit of pressure playing. I didn’t know what to do.

“I just told myself, yeah, to go out there and compete.

“A part of me knew that at some point there was going to be always a match where pressure was going to be there and the nerves were going to be there, kind of the expectation was going to be there.

“I knew it was going to be a part of it.”

With the win, de Minaur is through to the fourth round of the Australian Open for the fourth consecutive year.

He has never made the final eight in Melbourne, however, and will need to beat the in-form Alex Michelsen on Monday if he is to turn that trend around.

Top sports betting apps have him as a heavy favourite to do so, with the top online bookmakers returning just $1.25 for the Australian to prevail, compared to Michelsen’s odds of $4.

The pair have split their two meetings so far on the ATP Tour, and de Minaur is not taking anything for granted ahead of their round-of-16 clash.

“I played Michelsen twice,” he said.

“One went his way; one went mine. Two different matches. One on clay; one on hard.

“He’s been playing really well. He’s a dangerous opponent with a lot of confidence now.

“He’s taken some big scalps this week, so ready for a battle.

“He’s going to go out there with no fear.

“I’m going to do my best to make it difficult for him.”

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Topics: Alex de Minaur, Australian Open, Tennis

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