Alex De Minaur became the first Australian male tennis player since Lleyton Hewitt in the 2004 season to qualify for his tenth quarter-final in one season at the Japan Open, Tokyo in the 2023 season.
The fourth seed showed a consistent performance when overcoming Argentine tennis player Diego Schwartzman and won 6-0, 7-5 in the second round of the Japan Open which lasted 1 hour 30 minutes.
The Australian tennis player shot the ball with an accurate level from the baseline area before recording a 2-0 lead in their head to head.
“I always feel happy to win,” De Minaur exclaimed. “Especially against a tough competitor like Diego. I feel most proud of how I stay calm on the court. I was a little ahead in the second set and could have thrown it away, but I was focused, I told myself that I could get more chances, and I could get through it in straight sets.”
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The fourth seed is currently in 13th position in the ATP Race To Turin standings with 2,560 points. He is 550 points adrift of Holger Rune who is in the bottom position of the standings, namely eighth position.
Chasing his second title this season, the Australian tennis player must go further at the Japan Open to increase his chances of making his debut at the ATP Finals. If his rival is knocked out early, he could climb to ninth by winning the title in Tokyo. The player in eighth place, Rune; the tennis player in tenth place, Casper Ruud; The tennis player in 11th place, Hubert Hurkacz, has been eliminated from the tournament they each played in this week.
Thanks to his 41st win of the season, Alex De Minaur booked a quarter-final match against Aslan Karatsev who beat the Chinese national, Zhang Zhizhen, 6-3, 6-4.
De Minaur’s compatriot, Alexei Popyrin, also qualified for the quarter-finals of the Japan Open after beating Chilean tennis player Cristian Garin 4-6, 7-6, 6-2.
Popyrin now has 22 wins, equaling his best achievement in the 2021 season. Advancing to the sixth quarter-final of his career as well as the fourth quarter-final of the 2023 season, he will face the host tennis player, Shintaro Mochizuki.
