Australian Alex de Minaur scores a hard-fought four-set victory against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in the third round at Roland Garros 2024.
Paris, France, 2 June 2024 | Leigh Rogers
Alex de Minaur has become the first Australian in 17 years to progress to the men’s singles fourth round at Roland Garros.
The 25-year-old continued his career-best run in Paris with a stirring 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-3 victory against big-hitting German Jan-Lennard Struff in third-round action today.
De Minaur described the match as a “huge mental battle”.
“I would probably say it was one of my best performances mentally I’ve had probably in my career to turn that match around with the conditions, with everything really against me,” De Minaur said.
“I’m extremely stoked to have made the second week of Roland Garros.”
The world No.11 looked in trouble early, trailing 3-6 1-3, but with his never-say-die attitude, managed to find away to turn the match into his favour.
De Minaur also recovered from an 0-2 deficit in the third set, returning after a lengthy rain delay to win six of the next seven games.
“I just told myself that, you know, the only chance or way I was going to win this match was just to fight ’til the end, fight every single point, keep battling, try to stay in no matter what, and that’s what got me the win,” De Minaur admitted.
“I battled through, and I managed to turn it around at times where it looked quite dark out there, and, yeah, I’m very happy with that.”
World No.41 Struff struck 43 winners to 28 throughout the two-hour and 54-minute encounter, but De Minaur’s newfound self-belief on his least favourite surface was evident under pressure.
The Australian made the most of his opportunities, converting seven of the 10 break points he earned throughout the high-quality contest. Struff, on the other hand, only secured four of the 15 break points he held.
“I was suffering ’til the very last point. That’s the honest feeling I had out there,” De Minaur said.
“Almost every service game I was fighting off break points. There was never a stage where I felt like, ‘Okay, I’m in command, I’m in control, I’m just going to run away with this’.”
Struff is an accomplished clay-court player, entering the match with 11 wins from his 14 matches on the surface this season. At world No.11, De Minaur becomes the lowest-ranked opponent that the 34-year-old has lost to on clay in 2024.
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