Alex De Minaur was everyone’s most talked about young Australian for all the right reasons through much of the Australasian swing. The seventeen year-old earned his first place in an ATP draw by defeating Mikhail Kukushkin and Frances Tiafoe in Brisbane qualifying. He then defeated Gerald Melzer in a thrilling five-setter in the first round of the Australian Open, before losing to Sam Querrey.
He continued his fine form by starting the Launceston Challenger in style, defeating out-of-form top seed Go Soeda 36 64 63 in the first round.
Soeda had appeared to have taken control of the tie by earning three breaks of the De Minaur serve, ensuring that he would serve first in the second, a key advantage. De Minaur defied the first set circumstances to edge a second set that featured five breaks. The Australian was on the right side of that number to level the scores.
Soeda again served first in the decider, but it did the top seed no good. De Minaur earned an early break, and then broke Soeda again in the final game. The seventeen year-old also held serve impeccably in the decider, denying Soeda even a single break point chance.
Soeda joins other seeds Jan Satral (2), Sam Groth (5) and Akira Santillan (8) as players that fell in surprising first round exits.
Fourth seed Andrew Whittington narrowly avoided the same fate, as he defeated Blaz Rola 16 76 63. Whittington was close to going out in the second set, but after dominating the tiebreak, he raced through the third set.
Seventh seed Noah Rubin also survived an early scare, defeating Luke Saville 76 76. Saville had let 4-1 in the first before Rubin broke back, and survived a tough service game at 4-5 before winning both tiebreaks for the straight sets win.
Burnie finalist Blake Mott, unseeded in this event, suffered a disappointing first round loss to Briton Brydan Klein 63 64.
