But despite the mis-match, de Minaur wasn’t about to fall into the famous “curse” of the first-set bagel, he later said
“Ultimately, I just told myself that the match was about to start again,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the first set … I had to make sure I brought the intensity from the very first point to the last. Mentally, that’s my cue to stay focused, stay on top, and also not get sucked into just trying to put the ball in the court.”
While the Aussie admitted he’ll take the result “with a grain of salt,” his career-best run in Monaco is a testament to how hard he’s worked to improve his clay-court tennis in recent years. He lost in the first or second round of his first seven main draws at Roland Garros, before making the quarterfinals last year, and came into Mote Carlo with a losing career record on the surface at tour level. Now, though, he’s the favorite on paper to reach his first-ever clay-court final when he faced not three-time champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, but No. 13 seed Lorenzo Musetti in the semifinals.
“With the troubles I had on this surface at the start of my career, I didn’t quite understand it and how to play well on it,” de Minaur said. “As the years have gone by, I have grown to understand the things I can do well to become a tough opponent on this surface. I’m very happy that I am playing better and better every year.
“It’s not about hitting hard, powerful shots [on clay]. It’s about opening up the court, using angles, height, and different speeds, [and] understanding the balance between being too aggressive and too passive.”
