Alex de Minaur was “basically flawless” in booking his spot in the final of the ABN Amro Open in Rotterdam.
On his 25th birthday, Demon put together what he described as the best performance of his career in downing Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-3.
He’s set up a date with Jannik Sinner in the final, to be played in the early hours of Monday morning (AEDT).
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And win, lose or draw, he will rise to a career-high No.9 in the world rankings.
“I feel amazing – this year was a better birthday than I had last year,” he said after the match.
In a case of dèjà vu, de Minaur also spent his 24th birthday playing Dimitrov in Rotterdam, but in the quarters. On that day, the Aussie squandered two match points to crash out in three sets.
This year, he broke Dimitrov’s first game to love and from there was never headed.
“Grigor is so talented, such a good player. Today I had to be basically flawless to get the win over him,” he said.
“On to the final, so happy days.”
“I think this was pretty well my best match on tour.”
Playing his first tournament since winning the Australian Open a month ago, Sinner downed home favourite Tallon Griekspoor 6-2, 6-4.
Sinner boasts a 6-0 head-to-head record against de Minaur, but Sinner said he’s still wary of the Aussie.
“It doesn’t really matter what’s happened in the past – I saw him play today, he played really, really good,” Sinner said.
“I hope I can also play some good tennis tomorrow.”