DE MINAUR TAKES CARE OF BUSINESS TO KICK OFF MADRID CAMPAIGN

Alex de Minaur at full stretch in Saturday action in Madrid. (Getty/Oscar Del Pozo)

All the signs on a Saturday afternoon pointed to an Alex de Minaur victory entering his Madrid Masters 1000 openor against 43rd ranked Lorenzo Sonego.

He had never lost to the Italian in three previous meetings and was 37-2 against players outside the top 30 since May last year. Sonego was 6-30 against the top 10 and simply the demon was in good form with the most wins on tour this year behind Carlos Alcaraz (24).

This match was slated for the main Manola Santana stadium and apart from a shaky start being broken in the opening game of the match and Sonego out to 40-15 in his first service game, the Aussie was able to break back straight away and assert scoreboard dominance frrom the third game of the match to be a comfortable winner 6-2, 6-3.

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Hear Alex chatting to The First Serve on the ground in Madrid on the match as well as a range of topics - balls, contrast of clay courts, dropshots, clay court record, electronic line calling and anti-doping procedures.

CLICK HERE to listen to our Aussie chats on the road so far in 2025.

Next up will be Canadian 29th seed Denis Shapovalov, who accounted for Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-1, 6-4 in the R64.

It's a 4-0 head-to-head for Alex. It will be the pairs first match in three years for a spot in the R16.

Sunday in Madrid will see one Aussie on the singles court, with Daria Kasatkina to take on Ekaterina Alexandrova.

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