Alex de Minaur believes "it's all coming together" for him as his post-Melbourne renaissance continued with a second impressive victory in less than 48 hours at the Rotterdam Open.
Fresh from his third victory over a top-five opponent in less than four months, the Australian speedster followed up that win over world No.5 Andrey Rublev by seeing off net-rushing Maxime Cressy, one of the trickiest customers on tour, 7-5 3-6 6-3 in the last-16 on Thursday.
It set up a quarter-final in the indoor ATP 500 tournament for the Sydneysider against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, with a buoyant de Minaur now barely recognisable from the figure who appeared so downcast after being schooled by Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open three weeks ago.
"It's all coming together. I'm playing with a lot more confidence, a lot more relaxed and just playing my tennis," de Minaur had beamed after the straight sets win over Rublev, and it looked that way again as he successfully repelled the singular challenge of world No.40 Cressy.
The French-American had his big serve-and-volley game on full tilt, gambling on huge second serves, going for broke at every opportunity but de Minaur, facing this unorthodox challenge for the first time, soaked up everything Cressy could throw and eventually broke his game down to prevail in just over two hours.
"I'm very, very happy with the performance and I always knew there was a high chance the match would be taken away from my racquet the way he plays," said world No.25 de Minaur, whose nine unforced errors compared to his opponent's 33 told the story of Cressy's eventual frustration.
"I just tried to stay tough mentally, try to win every point I could and not let everything bother me.
"There's not too many out there on tour like him, for sure. It's always complicated, especially because he serves two first-serves, so you've always got to be on it on the return.
"There's big points when he's going to hit aces on second serve and you've just got to put up with it and try to give yourself another chance."
De Minaur, as against Rublev, attacked whenever he had the chance, and his effectiveness on return and speed around the court quite discomfited his hurricane of an opponent.
What's pleasing de Minaur so much is that he believes he's translated his terrific form on the practice courts into the competitive arena.
Holding a 2-1 career advantage over the gifted former world No.3 Dimitrov, who's back to 28 in the rankings, he must fancy his chances of defeating the Bulgarian and reaching a formidable semi against either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Daniil Medvedev.
"We've had a couple of battles already, he's a hell of a player, one of the most talented guys out there," said de Minaur of Dimitrov.
But the Australian, who hadn't beaten any top-5 opponent at 18 attempts before defeating Medvedev, Rafael Nadal and Rublev since November, feels he's now "popped the cherry" against the top players and can take on any of the top tenners.
