Alex de Minaur has reached the final of the Washington Open after beating Corentin Moutet in the semi-final.
The Australian was relatively comfortable throughout the match against the eccentric Frenchman. Moutet, who has become recognised for his trickery on the court, had beaten former world number one Daniil Medvedev in the previous round.
De Minaur’s appearance in the Washington final is his first since 2018, when the Australian star was just 19 years old.
After reaching his first ATP Tour final earlier in 2018 at the Sydney Open, de Minaur battled his way to the final in Washington, setting up a contest against Alexander Zverev.
Zverev won the contest 6-2 6-4, and the pair have gone on to play against each other a further eight times since that occasion.
Alex de Minaur said he ‘didn’t do a good enough’ job of holding serve early against Alexander Zverev
In the post-match press conference after losing to Zverev, De Minaur was asked how close he was to executing his game plan against the German.
He replied: “So obviously you have this set tactic or game plan before you come on and then if things aren’t really going your way you got to try and adjust.
“So I came out and didn’t start as well as I wanted to. I wanted to try and hold serve a couple times and try to really get myself into the match to be able to apply some pressure on his service games.
“But I didn’t do a good enough job at that. He was able to break me straight away and then he started to free up and play big and I felt like I was on the back foot a lot.
“So that’s something that didn’t go as planned but you know it’s tennis. It’s just another day. I’m very happy with the week I’ve had and I’m going to try and build on this.”
After a seven-year absence from the Washington Open final, Alex de Minaur has a chance at redemption against Spanish 12th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who stunned Ben Shelton to reach the final.
Alex de Minaur returns to the ATP top 10
With his victory against Moutet, Alex de Minaur has returned to the ATP top 10, as per the ATP live rankings.
De Minaur, who was ranked 13th before the tournament started, has since risen above Casper Ruud, Frances Tiafoe and Andrey Rublev.
The Australian has gained 280 ATP points so far this week. That number would rise to 500 if he were to defeat Davidovich Fokina on Sunday.
If he secures victory in the final, de Minaur would rise above Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune to number eight in the world.
