De Minaur, Tomljanovic win at Wimbledon

Darren Walton | July 3, 2022

Alex de Minaur has delivered a third-round clinic to surge into the second week of Wimbledon for the first time.

Australia’s 19th seed broke British hearts for the second round running with a 6-3 6-4 7-5 dispatch of local wildcard Liam Broady on Saturday.

De Minaur’s victory completed a daily double for Australia’s two top-ranked stars after women’s No.1 Ajla Tomljanovic earlier eliminated 13th seed Barbora Krjecikova – the 2021 French Open champion 2-6 6-4 6-3.

Tomljanovic’s gritty comeback win set up a likely fourth-round shootout on Monday with rampant world No.1 Iga Swiatek.

De Minaur will play unseeded Chilean Cristian Garin in his last-16 outing on Monday with a huge opportunity to gatecrash the quarter-finals.

Two days after overcoming emerging young Brit Jack Draper in an electrifying second-round encounter under the closed No.1 court roof, de Minaur returned to do a number on another of the home hopes.

The 23-year-old worked over Broady with a classic ensemble of drop shots, lobs and exquisite backhand passes.

He broke the left-handed Broady four times and dropped serve only once, while trying to close it out at 5-4 in the third.

He shook off the disappointment to break Broady the very next game before serving it out at the second time of asking.

De Minaur could yet face Nick Kyrgios in the quarter-finals, with his mercurial countryman lurking in his section of the draw and up against Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas later on Saturday for a spot in the fourth round.