de Minaur defends his Acapulco ATP 500 title

Australia’s Alex de Minaur has made Casper Ruud a runnerup for the second straight week. In doing so he defended his Acapulco title.

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Just last week it was Jordan Thompson that claimed his first ATP title when the Australian defeated Ruud in Los Cabos.

Second time around for Ruud he again faced an Aussie roadblock, this time de Minaur took the victory 6-4, 6-4.

“It’s been an amazing week,” said De Minaur, in his post-match interview. “Probably a week I didn’t really expect if I’m honest. I came into Mexico not feeling my best and just kept on telling myself to keep giving myself chances. I think today I played my best match of the tournament, so I’m extremely happy with that.”

de Minaur broke Ruud in the third game when the Norwegian hit wide on break point.

That would be enough to take the first set as Ruud could not even get a look at breaking back.

In the second set Ruud got an early break to lead 2-0 only to see de Minaur fight back from Ruud serving at 40-15.

de Minaur played some brillian shots to eventually break back, including a brilliant down the line forehand return winner that caught the sideline as the shot went from being outside to in. Ruud was left standing.

On the next point de Minaur showed he could also thread a needle on his backhand side as he hit another winner.

An inside out forehand from Ruud gave de Minaur a break point, then the Australian got the break back when Ruud hit long.

The Australian would break again in the seventh game despite making an error of judgement when leaving a ball he could have easily volleyed for a winner, it would land in and Ruud would move to 40-30..

A winner from de Minaur got him back to deuce. A ripping backhand winner had Ruud on the defensive and he was forced into hitting well over the baseline.

de Minaur hit a sizzling inside out forehand winner to claim that break.

The defending champion was now closing in on his second Acapulco title.

He would close out the match 6-4, 6-4.

Despite the win, de Minaur will drop from no. 9 to no. 10 in the rankings as his opponent earned points that took the defending champion into the no. 9 spot.

Next up for de Minaur is an early morning flight to Tijuana before driving over the border and into San Diego where he will cheer on Katie Boulter in the women’s final.

Boulter faces the no. 6 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.

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