Ruthless de Minaur roars into final of Rotterdam Open

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Ruthless de Minaur roars into final of Rotterdam Open

Alex de Minaur has served up another clinical display to reach the Rotterdam Open final for the second-straight year and bring a nightmarish conclusion to a dreamy week for Italian Mattia Bellucci.

The world No.8, who lost last year’s championship match of the Dutch hardcourt tournament to Jannik Sinner, has given himself another chance to become the only *********** apart from Lleyton Hewitt in 2004 to triumph in Rotterdam as he blitzed his way to a 6-1 6-2 victory in just 67 minutes on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).

World No.92 Bellucci had enjoyed what he’d called a “life-changing week” as he had battled through qualifying to take out both second seed Daniil Medvedev and sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

But third seed de Minaur proved a step too far for the 23-year-old left-hander who, at the end of a draining week, could have done without running into a player who’s looked in superb form all week while cantering into the final without dropping a set.

“More than anything, I just show up every day and put my head down. I do my best every time I step out on court. I try, I try to win every point I can, and I’ve ended up having a couple of good weeks in a row,” smiled de Minaur, who had helped Australia win their Davis Cup qualifying tie in Sweden last week.

“And hopefully now I can do one better than last year.”

De Minaur has only dropped serve once over what must have felt a cathartic week for him in his first individual tournament since being hammered by Sinner in the quarter-final of his home *********** Open.

He’s had a pretty comfortable run this week too, with none of his four opponents having been ranked higher than No.47 – but it shapes to be much tougher on Sunday when he’ll have to meet the winner between top seed, world no.3 Carlos Alcaraz, and world No.21 Hubert Hurkacz.

On Saturday, he was in no mood to give Bellucci any breathing room as he offered up his familiar study in perpetual motion to subdue the lively Italian showman, who had quickly got the crowd on his side by producing a spectacular tweener winner to cap a brilliant rally in the very first game.

“He’s played with so much confidence this whole week and played some incredible tennis,” said De Minaur.

“I was able to really analyse his matches and see maybe a couple areas where I could hurt him and maybe he wasn’t as comfortable.

“I knew it was going to come out and play very loose and full of confidence. So I thought if I could get on top of him early, then that would kind of open up the match.

“I just had to do my best to stay with him early and see if I could get my chances.”

De Minaur quickly wore Bellucci down, eventually breaking his serve four times on his way to becoming the first man this year to win 11 matches on tour. The Sinner loss in Melbourne remains his only defeat.

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