Alex de Minaur has been left relieved to blast back from being a set down and avoid joining the legion of seeds who have already been scattered at this shock-laden Wimbledon.
In perfect sunny conditions on Thursday morning, Australia’s big hope brushed off a woeful first set against French qualifier Arthur Cazaux before regrouping, asserting his superiority and eventually prevailing 4-6 6-2 6-4 6-0 to ease into the third round again.
Fifteen of the 32 men’s seeds had already fallen by the wayside in the first two rounds and, momentarily, there were concerns for de Minaur after a woeful first set in which he made 14 unforced errors and couldn’t find a first serve for love nor money.
“It just shows you, this sport, it’s not easy out there. Anything can happen on any given day,” said de Minaur after being asked about the proliferation of big names going out early.
“It definitely wasn’t an easy match and there some tough moments out there but I’m super excited to be back in the third round.”
De Minaur had never been knocked out of a grand slam by anyone as lowly-ranked as No 115 Cazaux but the alarm bells were ringing once the fluid server from Montpellier took advantage on a packed No 2 Court.
But urged on at courtside by his Davis Cup captain and last Australian men’s Wimbledon winner, Lleyton Hewitt, de Minaur stirred, nearly doubled his first-serve percentage of 33% to 63% and swept to level the set scores.
Cazaux, who had knocked out de Minaur’s old colleague from his Sydney junior days, Adam Walton, in five sets in the opening round, had banged down one serve timed at 147mph (236.5km) in that win.
The big delivery got him out of trouble constantly as the Australian put the pressure on and earned six break points during the second set, finally earning the key break at 4-4 when the Frenchman threw in a double fault.
Serving for it, de Minaur sealed the stanza with a thrilling inside-out forehand tracer, before delivering an uncharacteristic fist-pumping roar towards the crowd, who were largely rooting for the fiance of British player Katie Boulter.
“It feels like a second home slam for me,” de Minaur told the crowd. “The last few years, I’ve definitely felt the love here.”
Cazaux’s spirit was broken after the second set as de Minaur felt freed up to demonstrate why he is determined to surpass his quarter-final berth in last year’s event, feeding the dispirited Frenchman a 41-minute “bagel” set to love and progressing to the last-32 in two hours 48 minutes.
In the third round, de Minaur will be up against either Czech 21st seed Tomas Machac or Danish qualifier August Holmgren, who were in action later on Thursday.
