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.
And hours after 'Demon' had opened up with his predictable straight-sets win, he found a terrific Aussie terrier for his support act as Adam Walton forged past German Max Marterer 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-3 2-6 6-2 for his second grand slam win.
De Minaur is making 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 world No.59 Djere on Tuesday was his 20th consecutive win in a slam over an opponent outside the top-30.
