Alex de Minaur has been eliminated from the Miami Open, but the top-ranked Australian didn’t exit the tournament without giving his all in a marathon match.
The world No.18 was beaten by Frenchman Quentin Halys 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (10-8) in just shy of three hours and 19 minutes on Saturday at the ATP 1000 Masters event.
Both players were broken on serve three time across the three-set epic, with the 70th-ranked Halys saving two match points in the deciding tiebreaker.
Halys sent down a whopping 21 aces to de Minaur’s two, won the winners count 57-33 but made nearly twice as many unforced errors as the 24-year-old Sydneysider.
De Minaur was ousted at the same stage in his previous event at Indian Wells last week.
Compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis plays eighth-seed Pole Hubert Hurkacz later on Saturday in his round-of-64 clash.
Earlier, second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas progressed to round three via a walkover after Frenchman Richard Gasquet, conqueror of another Australian in Chris O’Connell, withdrew pre-match.
The 18th seed Lorenzo Musetti was a straight-sets loser to Czech Jiri Lehecka as was fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini, the 19th seed beaten 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (7-5) by American Mackenzie McDonald.
-AAP
