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Alex de Minaur scored an easy win against rising American teenager Alex Michelsen in straight sets, to cruise through to the second round at Roland Garros.
De Minaur, the tournament’s No.11 men’s seed, completed his 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 victory after a delay due to poor weather.
His strong performance was the first win for the Aussie contingent in Paris after five defeats and a withdrawal during the first two days. Thanasi Kokkinakis later defeated fellow Aussie Alexei Popyrin to also advance to round two.
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De Minaur was in control for the entire contest but did have a lapse in the third set, which enabled Michelsen to break serve and take a 2-0 lead, but that only seemed to inspire the Aussie, before rattling off six games in a row to breeze to victory.
Michelsen, 19, found himself at breaking point in the final set amid de Minaur’s comeback, when a lob from the Aussie was called in on the baseline.
The American was left dumfounded by the call when the umpire left his chair to explain the decision, throwing a tantrum that drew whistles from the crowd.
“Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. That is the least funny thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” he yelled.
The replay confirmed the American’s suspicions, with Hawkeye showing the ball was milimetres clear of the baseline.
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It did not matter in the end, with the Aussie setting up a clash with Spain’s world No.64 Jaume Munar in the next round.
”(It was) not easy out there today. Obviously a long day, stop-starting,” de Minaur said.
“More than anything mentally and also dealing with cold and rain in your face. Just had to be solid and, yeah, make sure I had good mentality today. That’s probably the most important thing.”
De Minaur went down to Michelsen at Los Cabos earlier this year and said he wanted to make amends.
“That match I flew from Rotterdam basically the night before from an indoor event to an outdoor event in Mexico,” he explained.
“So I probably wasn’t quite ready to play that match, but I definitely was ready today.”
