Australian No.1 Alex de Minaur has handed out a lesson to young rising star Jakub Mensik to book a place in the Rotterdam Open quarter-finals with a straight-sets triumph.
At one of his favourite European hardcourt events in the Rotterdam Ahoy arena in the Netherlands, de Minaur has now reached the last-eight in four consecutive editions but this year may fancy going the whole way after his hugely impressive 6-6 6-4 win on Thursday.
It took just one break of the 19-year-old Czech’s huge serve in each set to send the world No.8 on his way, while his own delivery was never threatened as he didn’t give up even the sniff of a break point.
World No.47 Mensik is the world’s top men’s teenage talent, the only one in the game’s top-50, but third seed de Minaur made him look still like a work in progress as he applied all the pressure with a performance that suggested he’s now really approaching his best again after some of his injury struggles in 2024.
The one-hour 27-minute victory sets last year’s finalist de Minaur up for a last-eight clash with either another rising star, 20-year-old Frenchman Arthur Fils, his opponent at Wimbledon last year when he suffered the hip injury that dogged him for the rest of the season, or German lucky loser Daniel Altmaier.
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