Leading home hope Alex de Minaur advanced to the Australian Open second round on Monday after Milos Raonic’s promising performance was cut short by injury inside Rod Laver Arena.
The former World No. 3 Raonic, playing his 10th tour-level match since returning from a near-two-year injury layoff, dug in behind his booming serve to clinch the first set from the in-form De Minaur. The Australian, who cracked the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings last week after his performances for Australia at the United Cup, then rallied to lead 6-7(6), 6-3, 2-0 before Raonic was forced to retire from the first-round matchup.
“I hope Milos has a speedy recovery,” said De Minaur in his on-court interview. “It’s not great to see him like this, and he deserves to be healthy and playing the incredible tennis that he has done for so many years. So hopefully he is back in no time.
“I was just chasing his serve for the better part of that match. Guessing every now and again and ended up getting maybe a little bit unlucky not to win the first set. I got a little bit tight at the end and I just focused on myself. Second set I told myself to restart, got a break out of the blue and it kind of changed the momentum.”
De Minaur will take on Italian Matteo Arnaldi at his home Grand Slam, where his best performances were fourth-round runs in 2022 and 2023. It will be a maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting between the two.
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