Two Australians have qualified for the second round of the 2024 French Open. On Tuesday, Alex De Minaur of Sydney steamrolled past 19-year-old American Alex Michelsen 6-1, 6-0, 6-2, and in an all-Australian battle, Thanasi Kokkinakis of Adelaide defeated Alexei Popyrin of Sydney 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in a five set thriller.
De Minaur’s win over Michelsen was extremely impressive because of the scoreline. Michelsen, who reached the final of the 2023 Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island, is emerging as one of the top and rising American tennis players, but did not have the game to be remotely competitive with De Minaur in his first round encounter. De Minaur had 13 break point opportunities, of which he capitalized on eight chances. Michelsen only had three break point chances and broke De Minaur once.
Kokkinakis generated momentum in his second round match in the second set when he won the tiebreak 10-8. Kokkinakis was the marginally better server as he had 13 aces compared to five double faults. Meanwhile, Popyrin had 11 aces compared to seven double faults.
In round two, de Minaur will face a Spanish player with a very similar name. His opponent will be Jaume Munar, the 64th ranked player in the world. De Minaur has won their two prior meetings. The first came in the semifinals of the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, which de Minaur won 3-4, 4-1, 4-1, 3-4, 4-2. The second came in the first round of Madrid in 2021, which de Minaur won 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Kokkinakis will next face Giulio Zeppieri of Italy, the 148th ranked player in the world. This will be their first ever meeting on the ATP Tour, but Kokkinakis won a challenger meeting in Italy in 2019.
There was only one player on the men’s side or women’s side ranked in the top ten to lose in the first round. That was the women’s number six seed Maria Sakkari of Greece, who was beaten by Varvara Gracheva of France, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
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