I think it is impossible not to like Alex De Minaur, who is providing a bright spot for Australian tennis over the last month with his solid tennis and never-give-up attitude. Working closely with Lleyton Hewitt, you can really see the work is starting to pay off. After securing the AO Wildcard last month in the playoff tournament, De Minaur was lucky to be granted a Wildcard this week once Matt Ebden was upgraded to the main draw (therefore no longer needing his Wildcard). All of a sudden a week later De Minaur finds himself in the quarter finals against Mmoh after defeating Steve Johnson and Milos Raonic in straight sets. Don’t get me wrong, neither of Johnson or Raonic were at their best, but the returning ability of De Minaur in both matches is what was most profound, as well as the fact that he hit one unforced error against Raonic for the match.
Michael Mmoh is also having one of the better weeks of his career. After making it through Qualifying, Mmoh managed to defeat Delbonis and Mischa Zverev on his way to the quarter final. Zverev has not played up to his form of this time last year, and I think there has been a slight overreaction to how that win has been perceived when framing the odds for today.
One key observation from Mmoh vs Zverev was how Mmoh really struggled at times when generating his own pace. He really found it difficult to consistently generate a lot of power on his ground strokes, especially off the backhand side, and when you have a player such as De Minaur who can vary pace and spin, is a great court mover, and hits low levels of unforced errors, I really see this match going one way today.
Considering form, matchup, location and conditions, all signs point to a De Minaur victory here. Unless Mmoh is able to serve lights out the whole match and redline his play, we should see De Minaur reaching the Semi Finals in Brisbane.
Suggested bet
5 units De Minaur to defeat Mmoh at $1.78 at Pinnacle
