Nervous Demon draws first blood
NERVE-RIDDLED Alex de Minaur has delivered Australia the perfect start to its Davis Cup qualifier against Hungary – but not before surviving some tense moments.
The top-ranked Aussie was a strong favourite against Hungary’s Zsombor Piros, given more than 200 ranking spots and $6m prizemoney separated the pair on paper.
But in-form de Minaur had to dig deep several times in Sydney on Friday night to emerge a 7-5 6-2 winner in a contest that was far tighter than the scoreboard suggested.
It was his sixth victory from 10 singles matches in the Davis Cup.
Thanasi Kokkinakis was trying to land an even bigger blow for Australia when he took on Hungary’s best player, world No.35 Marton Fucsovics, in the night’s other singles match.
“It’s never easy playing for your country. You’re always a lot more nervous coming in,” de Minaur said.
“But I can’t tell you how good it feels to play in front of a home crowd in my home (city).”