A fresh Alex de Minaur has scooted through the first week of the Australian Open after a mostly stress-free victory over qualifier Flavio Cobolli on John Cain Arena on Friday night.
The 10th seed was challenged at times by the 21-year-old upstart, who had to win five matches at Melbourne Park just to get to this stage, but the Australian proved too consistent with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 victory in 128 minutes.
De Minaur’s third round victory was his second in a row against an Italian, and took his streak to seven sets after losing the first to big-serving Milos Raonic in the first round on Monday.
“I’m happy, maybe I was a little bit on edge during the match,” De Minaur said. “But I’m happy to get through and again, being in the second week, it feels like when the tournament really starts.”
After De Minaur demolished the 41st-ranked Arnaldi in straight sets on Wednesday, Cobolli provided a different kind of opponent for the nimble Australian.
They had never met but it appeared De Minaur had done his homework. The Australian had described Cobolli before the match as a bit like Arnaldi with “firepower”.
And De Minaur was on him almost from the jump, breaking to go up 3-2 in the first set.
But the son of a former pro once ranked No 237 showed he was worthy of the stage. It took Arnaldi until the fifth-last game to take a service game off the Australian. Cobolli, shocking the Melbourne Park fans into silence, did it in his seventh.
“He’s a great competitor, he showed what he’s able to do this whole tournament, getting through qualifying and getting through to the third round, beating seeds and great players, I’ve got a lot of respect for him,” De Minaur said.
As the match wore on however, the Australian’s class became evident. He steadied to take the first set and seemed to be on top early into the second.
But the Italian was full of fight. He had already survived qualifying at Melbourne Park and knocked off 18th seed Nicolás Jarry in the first round.
Cobolli came close to breaking De Minaur in the set’s second game, then as the Australia looked to assert himself, the Italian held firm. He was up against the world No 10, and the near-10,000 parochial fans in John Cain Arena, but he refused – for a time – to be broken.
At 1-1, the Italian’s service game lasted a staggering 23 points across 17 minutes. There was a howitzer of a return from De Minaur on break point that just went long. Desperate saves from the Italian. Brilliant pickups.
And through it all the rowdy fans had little respect for his resistance. The were two renditions of all four verses of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie”. Even the chair umpire was beginning to lose patience.
Cobolli finally lost the game, and his opportunities were fading. He couldn’t convert any of four break points later in the second, and the set was the Australian’s.
And his exertions – on Friday but also in the two weeks leading up – appeared to be getting the better of him. After a medical time out, the final set passed in a flash, but he still walked off smiling, clearly pleased at his best grand slam performance.
For the Australian, the a greatest test is imminent. He meets either 5th seed Andrey Rublev or the 29th seed Sebastian Korda in the next round.
And he will have to improve, most notably on his first serve which landed just 52% of time against the Italian.
“This is where I want to be, and this is where the tail end of the tournament starts, the second week of slams,” De Minaur said.
“I’ve always been told the first week of the slam is to get through how ever way you want to and the second week is when you start to play your real tennis.”
