De Minaur races into third QF of season, Medvedev advances in Doha

Alex de Minaur continued his red-hot start to the season on Wednesday at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, where he brushed past Botic van de Zandschulp to reach his third consecutive quarter-final of the year.

The Australian earned his 200th tour-level hard-court win in his first-round victory against Roman Safiullin and quickly made it 201 with a controlled 6-4, 6-4 victory against Dutchman Van de Zandschulp.

The second seed demonstrated trademark lighting speed at times in Doha, where he flew around the court to track down Van de Zandschulp’s flat groundstrokes. The Aussie also saved all four break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats, advancing after two hours. With his 35th win at ATP 500 level since the start of 2023, De Minuar improved to 3-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against the qualifier.

De Minaur has earned a Tour-leading 13 victories in 2025, having reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open for the first time and the title match in Rotterdam. Chasing his first trophy of the season, the No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings will next meet Andrey Rublev at the ATP 500 after the fifth seed beat Nuno Borges 6-3, 6-4.

Rublev triumphed in Doha in 2020 and will be aiming to build on recent runs to the semi-finals in Montpellier and quarter-finals in Rotterdam.

Smooth sailing into the quarter-finals ⛵@AndreyRublev97 defeats Borges in 2 straight sets 6-3 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals!@QatarTennis | #QatarExxonMobilOpen pic.twitter.com/VPka8ozXlR

— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 19, 2025

In other action, Daniil Medvedev wasted little time in reaching the quarter-finals. The fourth seed dispatched Zizou Bergs 6-2, 6-1 in just 56 minutes to earn his 300th tour-level hard-court win.

The 29-year-old arrived in Doha holding a 4-3 record on the new season. Aiming to rediscover form this week, the 2023 champion committed just six unforced errors compared to 29 from Bergs to back up his opening-round win against Karen Khachanov.

Top 5 Active Players by Hard-court Winning Percentage

Medvedev will next meet Felix Auger-Aliassime in the last eight. The Canadian received a walkover from Hamad Medjedovic earlier on Wednesday. The Serbian, the 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF champion, suffered a hamstring injury in the latter stages of his win against Stefanos Tsitsipas on Tuesday night and was forced to withdraw from the ATP 500 event ahead of his meeting with Auger-Aliassime.

Did You Know?
De Minuar has won 32 of his past 33 matches against players outside the Top 30 since last May.