De Minaur beat World No.3 in just over 2 hours and 45 mins. Source: Shutterstock.
Alex de Minaur has beaten World No.3 Daniil Medvedev to advance to the next round in the Paris Masters, giving him his first win against a Top 5 player.
The 23-year-old Aussie beat the 26-year-old Russian 6-4,2-6,7-2 in two hours and 46 minutes.
“It’s a good one to get, for sure,” said De Minaur.
“It’s the end of the year, everyone’s a bit tired, but I’m very proud of my performance. I just played very smart. I knew it was going to be a chess match out there, both baiting each other to be aggressive, but you also didn’t want to be too aggressive at times. It was an absolute battle and I’m very happy I was able to come out on top.”
While De Minaur was elated with his win, Medvedev was visibly frustrated as he slammed his racket into the ground, before shaking hands with his opponent.
Breakthrough win for Alex de Minaur who defeats world #3 Daniil Medvedev at the Paris Masters #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/R529mQ4rQJ
— John Casey (@JohnCasey2880) November 2, 2022
It’s the 19th attempt by the Aussie to beat someone in the Top 5 and he jokingly said, “I just wanted to wait for the 19th game- why do it in the first 18,eh?”.
The Aussie is now ranked No.25 in the world and will head into the next round of the Paris Masters where he will face off against World No.16 Frances Tiafoe.
Other Australians in action at the tournament include John Peers who will be playing with Englishman Dan Evans in the Men’s Doubles. The pair will be up against Brit Llyod Glasspool and Finish player Harri Heliovaara.
Also set to head into the last 16 is Matt Ebden who will play with UK native Jamie Murray in the Men’s Doubles up against Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer and Salvadoran Marcelo Arevalo.
