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Alex de Minaur has won the fifth ATP title of his career, which has come from a set drop to earn an exciting 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5) victory against Italian Lorenzo Sonego in the East Final in the Eastbourne.
The win, earned on the hard road after two hours and 40 minutes of high-quality tennis on the lawn of Devonshire Park on Saturday, was the perfect tonic for Australias No. 1 as he aims for a deep run at Wimbledon starting on Monday.
If you want to beat Lorenzo, you have to play the best tennis, 22-year-old de Minaur told the audience after winning his first lawn tournament.
Its a lot of relief, a lot of excitement. It’s been a long week, I’ve played great tennis and managed to get through with a very hard win today, he said. Hopefully I can keep it through Wimbledon, I can’t wait, added de Minaur, who plays young American Sebastian Korda on Monday in the first round.
The victory was particularly pleased with de Minauri, as he had to force himself to go on offense after handing over the first set in an atypically tame service game at 4-5pm, which gave the Italian world No. 27 money.
Aussie regrouped with an early break at the start of the second, which was the key to leveling him.
Yet when the tight race, which reached its crescendo in a few spectacular rallies near the end of the final series, fell to a decisive tiebreak, de Minaur was one of the attack.
I had to pull through all the mental strength I had to win in that match, he said I had to tell myself to try to be a little more aggressive and go win it, not just expect him to lose it because he was definitely not going to do it.
In a draw 5-5, he got a time offense from Vice President Fergus Murphy, but it bothered de Minaur when he then played a safe point in the service and attacked the match point again before throwing a winning sorrow.
It gave me exactly what I wanted to do this week – play great tennis and prepare for Wimby, said de Minaur, who now has a grass field badge with his four hard field crowns and is moving into a career – the highest top-15 spot on Monday.
But even though I’ve had an amazing week here, I need to change my mindset really quickly to Wimby.
Kordas is a player of hell. He has shown his ability to play on all surfaces and especially recently on the lawn, he has amassed very high quality wins and it becomes an incredibly tough match.
Sonego, who dedicated his performance to my grandmother, my best fan, who died two weeks ago, speculated that de Minaur could go a long way after the Aussies semifinal at Wimbledon in Stuttgart and the final semifinal at the Queens Club.
He has a good chance at Wimbledon because if the courts are so fast, it’s better for him because he’s going back so good, Sonego said. He plays so well on the lawn that he can have a really good tournament at Wimbledon for sure.
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