1 week Ago
Australian tennis royalty has made majestic progress on the Court des Princes with both Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin taking big-name scalps on the way to reaching the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters. Following each other on to the number two court at Monaco's Country Club on Thursday, Popyrin first saved two match points en route to outstaying world number seven Caper Ruud 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 before de Minaur raised eyebrows through the ease with which he demolished old foe Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 6-2. It set up the rare treat for Australian tennis of having two players in the quarterfinals of a clay-court Masters 1000 event, with the tantalising prospect of further progress for the Sydneysider pals with de Minaur facing Grigor Dimitrov and Popyrin up against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Friday's last-eight ties.
After a horror start to his season, Popyrin feels like he is starting his tennis year all over again as he earned his best victory of 2025 over Ruud. A year after he knocked out the then world number six Andrey Rublev at Monaco's prestigious Country Club, the beanpole Australian this time accounted for another big name at his most successful European clay court venue in a draining, near three-hour tussle. Twice, Popyrin was a point away from bowing out when 5-3 down in the deciding set, before he rallied and went on the attack against Norway's three-time grand slam finalist, reeling off the final four games for one of the best clay court triumphs of his career.
It also put a dreadful start to his year behind Popyrin, who had only won two matches before turning up in the Principality for his first outing of the clay court season. "No, I'm 3 and 0 this year — I'm forgetting about the start of the year for me," the 25-year-old said when asked about his dismal opening to 2025. "It was a tough start of the year but this week is a new week, and the year is really, really long, and I just have to put in the work and forget about the last couple of months — and that's what I've done this week.
" The two-hour 56-minute win over Ruud, sealed by a cross-court volley which was his 49th winner of the match, set up a clash with Davidovich Fokina, who also pulled off a shock by defeating British fifth seed Jack Draper 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4. Eighth seed De Minaur said he was now really finding his feet on clay after trouncing an out-of-sorts world number 11 Medvedev by earning seven breaks of serve in a one-sided affair lasting only 72 minutes. He said he had taken confidence from how he had beaten Russia's US Open champ at Roland Garros last year.
"I thought I executed really well, just had a slight lapse in concentration. But apart from that, I thought I was very smart and tactically played the right way," said de Minaur, who will play 15th seed Dimitrov, a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victor over Novak Djokovic's Chilean conqueror Alejandro Tabilo. Carlos Alcaraz, the second seed, beat German qualifier Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-1 and will face rising French star Arthur Fils, while de Minaur's old nemesis Stefanos Tsitsipas looked in ominously good form with his 6-1, 6-1 win over Nuno Borges.
The Greek sixth seed will play Lorenzo Musetti, who won the all-Italian showdown with Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-3, in the last-eight. The ABC of SPORT.
