De Minaur secures best Miami result by reaching fourth round

Alex de Minaur continued his strong start to 2024 by scoring his tour-leading 19th match win of the year Monday at the Miami Open presented by Itau. The Aussie earned a 7-6(3), 6-4 victory against 24th seed Jan-Lennard Struff to advance to the fourth round for the first time at the ATP Masters 1000, matching his Indian Wells run.

The ninth-seeded De Minaur successfully defended his Acapulco title before embarking on the Sunshine Swing and also reached the Rottterdam final last month. His 19th win of the year moved him one ahead of Jannik Sinner and Casper Ruud for sole possession of first place on the ATP Tour, though both Sinner and Ruud can match him by advancing on Tuesday.

Demon on the rise in The Magic City 😈@alexdeminaur sets up a fourth round clash against Marozsan, after seeing off Struff 7-6(3) 6-4.@MiamiOpen | #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/vKiQAjU8nN

— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 25, 2024

In windy conditions, De Minaur stayed the course to improve to 3-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head against Struff. Despite making just 48 per cent of his first serves, according to Infosys ATP Stats, the Aussie faced just one break point, which he saved.

"It wasn't going go to be easy. It's super tough conditions," said De Minaur, who won 40 of his 84 points via Struff unforced errors. "I just tried to keep my head and keep composure. I was able to get a little bit lucky in big points today and happy to get the win."

After battling through five deuces to hold for 5-3 in the second set, he coolly served out the win after one hour, 49 minutes.

Next up is a chance for revenge against Fabian Marozsan, who beat him last year at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. The Hungarian is 3-1 against Top 10 opponents, including a win against sixth seed Holger Rune on Sunday. He backed that up with a 7-5, 6-3 result against Alexei Popyrin on Monday. 

"He got me last time, so I know exactly what to expect," De Minaur said of the 24-year-old, who moved into the Top 50 of the PIF ATP Live Rankings by reaching the fourth round. "He's a hell of a player, he's playing great and he's super dangerous."

Hubert Hurkacz, the 2021 Miami champion, continued his pursuit of an eighth title and third at the Masters 1000 level with a 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-3 win over Sebastian Korda. The eighth-seeded Pole will meet the winner of Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and German Yannick Hanfmann.

“The conditions were super tricky,” said Hurkacz, who dropped 15 aces and won 86 per cent of points on his first serve according to Infosys ATP Stats. “The wind was blowing side to side, which is a little different to when it’s normally blowing in one direction.

“In those conditions I had to play with bigger margins and I played more defensively than I would have liked. But I still managed to serve quite okay.”