Alex de Minaur had treatment on his right foot during his fleet-footed win over Laslo Djere. -AP
Alex de Minaur jokes about being a "clay dog" these days, and he certainly looked perfectly at home on the Roland Garros red dirt as he mauled, scrapped and finally chased off Laslo Djere to successfully launch his French Open bid.
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"Demon'' has begun to make a welcome habit of defeating the players he really ought to beat in the majors, and a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (8-6) victory over Serbian Djere, the world No.59, on Tuesday was his 20th consecutive win in a slam over an opponent outside the top 30.
Fortunately, not even a spell of treatment for his toe-bandaged and seemingly blistered right foot at the start of the third set was enough to stop the world No.9's fleet-footed progress, even though he did then get pulled into a bit of a dogfight, having to save four set points before advancing in three straight.
Djere, who had been 5-2 up in the third, squandered two set points when serving at 5-4 and another pair when 6-4 up in the tiebreak, but de Minaur's unquenchable fighting spirit enabled him to escape and seal the deal in just over two-and-a-half hours.
Determined to build on his quarter-final breakthrough here last year, de Minaur, in the middle of his most promising claycourt season yet, is the fourth Australian into the second round alongside Alexei Popyrin, Daria Kasatkina and Ajla Tomljanovic.
He'll next face Kazakhstan's unpredictable and always dangerous Alexander Bublik, the world No.62, who prevented any prospect of an all-Australian second-round clash when he defeated Sydneysider James Duckworth 6-2 6-4 6-4.
