De Minaur powers Aussies into Davis Cup lead in Sweden

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De Minaur powers Aussies into Davis Cup lead in Sweden

Alex de Minaur has served up another Davis Cup treat to give Australia the early lead in their first-round qualifying tie against Sweden in Stockholm.

The world No.8, in his first outing since his quarter-final drubbing by Jannik Sinner at the *********** Open, had to subdue a confident return to action by Mikael Ymer before running away to a 7-5 6-1 victory on Friday (Saturday AEDT).

Prevailing in the first rubber of the two-day, best-of-five tie, de Minaur’s 16th Davis Cup singles win gave Lleyton Hewitt’s injury-ravaged side the perfect lift-off, silencing the noisy full house in the Swedish capital’s Royal Tennis Hall,.

“Look, It was a competitive match, a very tough match. Mikael played well, I knew he was going to be a very tough opponent, so I’m very happy I got the win for Australia, put a win on the board,” de Minaur told the crowd.

Debutant Aleksandar Vukic was later set to play Leo Borg, son of Swedish tennis legend Bjorn Borg, in the final rubber of the day.

It ended up a straightforward win for ‘******’ on the quick indoor hard court but he had his hands full early on with Ymer, a former top-50 player who’s returning after serving an 18-month ban for an anti-doping violation and was coming off an ITF tournament triumph last week in Luxembourg.

The 26-year-old matched de Minaur shot for shot in the opening set – one rally won by the *********** went on for 41 strokes – with neither man earning even the sniff of a break in the first 10 games.

But de Minaur, who’d lost his previous three singles in the Davis Cup, stepped up perfectly, reeling off eight straight points with relentlessly deep hitting to take the 51-minute set and two more points immediately at the start of the second to set up another break.

Ymer battled steadfastly but eventually had to surrender a double break as de Minaur then went on to make it six games in a row and reel off the victory against his tiring opponent in one hour 27 minutes.

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