De Minaur in Sydney quarters

AUSTRALIAN rising star Alex de Minaur is into the final eight at the Sydney International after Damir Dzumhur retired midway through the second set of their second-round match.

De Minaur was leading 6-2, 3-0 yesterday when the Bosnian pulled the plug on Ken Rosewall Arena, continuing the 18-year-old’s stunning home summer.

The Sydney local will now await the winner of Feliciano Lopez and third seed Diego Schwartzman for a spot in the semi-finals.

In contrast to his victory over Fernando Verdasco on Tuesday, de Minaur dictated proceedings against the 30thranked Dzumhur by unveiling a little more of his offensive game.

Twice the Bosnian was broken in the first set, and de Minaur refused to let up in the second with an early inroad before Dzumhur called quits.

Earlier yesterday, the upsets continued when men’s top-seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas was bundled out in his opening match of the tournament.

After enjoying a firstround bye, Ramos-Vinolas crashed to a 6-3, 7-5 loss to Italian veteran Paolo Lorenzi.

The Spanish world No. 22 needed treatment for a leg problem early in the second set but continued playing, without success as Lorenzi moved into the quarter-finals.

He will play either rising American Jared Donaldson or Russian qualifier Daniil Medvedev for a semi-final berth.

Meanwhile, Sam Groth’s singles career is over after an agonising third-set tiebreak loss to emerging American Taylor Fritz in qualifying for the Australian Open.

The Victorian had previously announced his intention to retire from professional tennis at his home grand slam, which came with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3) loss to the 20-year-old.

Groth, 30, will play doubles with Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Stosur next week as the former Newcombe medallist farewells the sport.