Alex De Minaur beat Roman Safiulin 6-1 7-5 in 1 hour and 37 minutes to clinch his hard-court win on the ATP Tour at the Qatar Exxon Mobil Open in Doha.
Safiulin converted just one of his break points, as he made 44 unforced errors.
De Minaur earned two breaks in the fourth and sixth games to win the first set 6-1.
De Minaur ended a 15-shot rally in the fifth game to convert his third break point for 3-2. Safiulin broke straight back in the 10th game, when De Minaur was serving for the match at at 5-4. De Minaur recovered to break in the 11th game and served out the win on his first match point recording his ATP Tour-leading 12th of the 2025 season. De Minaur reached the quarter finals at the Australian Open.
“They’re tough days, these ones. It’s cold, it’s windy, you probably don’t want to get out of bed. But once you step on court, you have to do everything you can to win. Whether it’s ugly or pretty tennis, you just put the ball in the court, and that’s what I did today. The wind made it difficult to feel comfortable out there on court. Out went any sort of tactics you had for the match and it was all about surviving more than anything”, said De Minaur.
De Minaur will face Dutch qualifier Botic Van de Zandschulp, who beat wild card Abdullah Shelbayh 7-5 6-3.
Luca Nardi beat world number 49 Zhizhen Zhang 6-4 6-3 in 1 hour and 17 minutes setting up a second round match against Carlos Alcaraz.
Both players went on serve until the 10th game when Nardi earned two set points on Zhang’s serve. The Italian converted his second break point to win the first set 6-4. Zhang saved a break point in the fourth game before breaking serve in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Nardi reeled off four consecutive games with two breaks in the sixth and eighth games to seal the second set 6-3.
