Eleven wins in the last twelve matches – The man of the hour, Alex de Minaur, has reached the final at the ATP tournament in his native Sydney. Juan Martin del Potro plays for the title in Auckland.
The fairytale ascent of Alex de Minaur continues. Under the watchful eye of Australia’s tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt, the 18-year-old newcomer Benoit Paire defeated Paire in the semi-finals with 4:6,6:1,6:1.
In Saturday’s final on Saturday, there will be a youngster duel with only 21 years old Russian Daniil Medvedev – the #NextGen star had held his ground against Fabio Fognini in three sets in the other semi-final. If de Minaur wins his final premiere, he would be equal to “Mastermind” Hewitt. Sydney International also won the world’s former number one in 2000 at the tender age of 18.
Another positive side effect: With the tournament victory de Minaur would be very close to making it into the top 100 for the first time – a year ago he was ranked 351st.
At the parallel event in Auckland, however, the experienced riders prevailed. Juan Marin del Potro won his semi-final 6-4,6-4 against David Ferrer, while Roberto Bautista Agut had previously fought his way through a tie-break thriller 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) against Robin Haase from the Netherlands.
“Delpo leads the internal record against the Spaniard 3-1. For both of them, it’s a matter of winning their second tournament in the New Zealand metropolis.