De Minaur, Rublev secure convincing Rotterdam openers

Alex de Minaur’s athleticism was on full display on Tuesday at the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam.

The third seed delivered a rock-solid performance to move past David Goffin 6-2, 6-4 and continue his confident start to the 2025 season. De Minaur, last year’s finalist in Rotterdam, moved freely throughout the 96-minute clash. The 25-year-old used his speed to turn the defensive exchanges on their head, ultimately outhitting Goffin by 24 winners to 13.

“It felt slow out here, quite tough to get used to the conditions,” said De Minaur, who improved to 10-4 in Rotterdam. “The ball got massive… It's a very rough surface. I’m happy with my attitude today, I did exactly what I needed to do. David is a hell of a competitor, so I knew it was going to be a hell of a battle.”

The 😈 is making moves.

Last year’s finalist powers into the second round and extends his head-to-head record against Goffin to 6-0! @abnamroopen | #abnamroopen pic.twitter.com/P5fPcof7oh

— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 4, 2025

After notching his 30th ATP 500 win since the start of the 2023 season, De Minaur only trails Jannik Sinner (32) for most on Tour. The No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings broke new ground by reaching the quarter-final at his home major in Melbourne for the first time and heads into the second round in Rotterdam with an 8-1 record in 2025.

During the second set of Tuesday’s first-round clash, Goffin began to find his range and produce some of the shot-making that propelled him to the championship match at the Nitto ATP Finals in 2017. The former World No. 7 used the backhand slice to counter De Minaur’s heavy balls and stay in the long rallies, but the Australian was rewarded for his patience when he converted his fourth break point.

“I have definitely improved the power side of things, I’ve gained maybe 5 or 10 km/h on my serve and it helped me out in big points," said De Minaur. "I managed to find some big serves when I needed, and it’s all about keeping that first-serve percentage quite high.

“The expectations I have on myself will always surpass the outside noise. I expect a lot out of myself, I want to keep on pushing. It’s a long year, but it’s all about staying tough.”

With his commanding victory, De Minaur improved to 6-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Goffin — three of which have come in Rotterdam. The Australian will next continue his quest to emulate his run to the final in 2024 against Jakub Mensik. The #NextGenATP star cruised to a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Alexander Bublik in just 59 minutes.

Mensik was ruthless behind his serve, winning 88 per cent (29/33) of points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats. The 19-year-old, who made his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF in Jeddah in December, levelled his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the Kazakhstani at 1-1.

Fourth seed Andrey Rublev advanced past Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 6-4 for his first win over a Top 50 opponent in 2025. The 27-year-old, who won the Rotterdam title in 2021, expertly asserted himself on the occasion by overpowering Zhang from the baseline en route to a commanding 82-minute victory.

“I didn’t know what to expect, because I didn’t have time to practise… I only had one, and sometimes that’s not enough. But in terms of the result, it looked like it worked well,” said Rublev. “In the beginning, I didn’t know what to expect from the conditions, but then after one, two games I started to feel that this court is not easy to hit [on]. The balls got really big, but then I started to get more comfortable because I like the game where you play a lot of rallies, you have to pay attention [to the] tactics.”

In stark contrast to Zhang, who was unable to make inroads on his opponent's serve, Rublev was relentless on return throughout. He carved out eight break points, converting six of them, and saved the sole one he faced behind his own serve. Zhang was also unable to limit his unforced error count, which rose to 36 by the end of the clash.

Rublev will face either Jan-Lennard Struff or Fabian Marozsan in the second round.