Australia's leading player Alex de Minaur has moved onto the third round in Monaco with a typically gritty three-sets victory over British No.1 Cameron Norrie at the prestigious Monte Carlo ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
De Minaur was on the back foot for much of the first two sets in Monte Carlo on Tuesday but he toughed it out to win 7-6(5) 2-6 6-2.
First, Norrie, who reached the quarterfinals at Indian Wells before losing to Carlos Alcaraz, edged 4-2 ahead in the opening set but De Minaur clawed him back to win the tiebreaker.
Norrie then won five games in a row en route to forcing a deciding set.
But De Minaur, the No.5 seed, broke serve twice at the start of the final set before progressing to set up a last-16 meeting with either 10th seed Flavio Cobolli or Belgian qualifier Alexander Blockx.
> Aussie Watch: De Minaur tackles Monte Carlo
In his first claycourt match of 2026, the 27-year-old picked up where he left off last year, winning 10 of his 15 matches on the surface.
De Minaur’s most recent claycourt season was highlighted by a semifinal appearance in Monte Carlo, where he notably defeated three top-25 players – Tomas Machac, Daniil Medvedev and Grigor Dimitrov – en route.
Wednesday’s victory takes the world No.6’s win tally to 13 for the season, seven behind Jannik Sinner, who has recorded the most wins on the ATP Tour in 2026.
Earlier, Alexei Popyrin fell 6-3 6-4 to No.9 seed Casper Ruud.
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