Demon off to strong start as he looks to rewrite his Roland-Garros history

This is where it gets interesting for Alex de Minaur.

Australia’s top-10 torchbearer extended his streak of not losing in the first round at a grand slam to 16 tournaments with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 dismantling of British qualifier Toby Samuel at Roland-Garros on Monday night (AEST) to book his first serious test in what he hopes is a lengthy stay.

De Minaur snapped out of a prolonged form slump with a semi-final run in Hamburg last week after he had lost three consecutive matches on clay – and seven of 11 overall since winning the Rotterdam title in February.

“It’s quite funny because last week Hamburg was slow, heavy, rainy. The ball was not moving anywhere. That’s exactly the week that got me out of the slump, in theory, [what are] my toughest conditions,” he said.

“Last week gave me a heap of confidence. I feel like I got my mojo back. It was a critical week for me. Going now into these [warmer] conditions … it’s easier to be a little bit more aggressive. The ball is jumping. I don’t necessarily have to use as much spin or heaviness, and I can let the conditions do the job for me.”

Up next is one of the tour’s rising stars, 21-year-old Belgian Alexander Blockx, a powerful former junior world No.1 enjoying his breakout season at the top level.

Blockx breezed through his first-round match in straight sets on Sunday night, and barely missed a seeding for the claycourt major after making the Madrid Masters semi-finals. He presents a sizeable threat to de Minaur, who won their sole meeting in Monte-Carlo in two tight sets in April.

“It’s going to be a battle in this heat, and my goal is going to be to make it physical, [and] extend rallies,” de Minaur said. “I’m happy with the way I’m playing, so I’m excited for the challenge.”

It was 12 months ago that de Minaur reached this same stage in the French capital, only to shockingly blow a two-set lead to Kazakh Alexander Bublik before revealing his battle with burnout.

That remains the 27-year-old’s worst grand slam result since losing in the second round at Wimbledon to Matteo Berrettini three years ago.

De Minaur has since become one of the tour’s most consistently excellent performers, including reaching one of his seven major quarter-finals at Roland-Garros in 2024. But this has been his least successful slam, where he lost in the second round or earlier at eight of his nine trips.

What it does mean is the world No.9 has an opportunity to make up some ground on his rivals, and potentially end this fortnight with a career-high ranking in the top five if things go well.

De Minaur generally hits a flatter ball than his peers, which is part of his challenge on the red dirt – although the livelier conditions are in his favour – but has developed a more-than-handy drop shot that was on high rotation against Samuel.

But their match-up was a soft opener for the “Demon”, who was the first player to advance on day two in eight minutes short of two hours on a Paris day that peaked beyond 30 degrees.

The 159th-ranked Brit had never faced a top-100 opponent, let alone one with a single-digit ranking, before walking onto court 14 against de Minaur.

De Minaur wasn’t perfect, and had to dig himself out of an 0-2 hole in the second set, but he grabbed that break back instantly and was otherwise largely untroubled.

Samuel surprised de Minaur with some big strikes early in the contest and finished his work at the net as they traded early service holds.

But as the No.8 seed settled in and found his range, Samuel found it more difficult to hang in the rallies. He tugged a backhand wide on a rash attempt at a winner to drop serve in the fifth game – and that was all de Minaur needed to eventually clinch a one-set edge.

Samuel quickly found himself a break point down in set two, only to wriggle clear then capitalise on an uncharacteristically loose de Minaur service game to break the Australian for the only time in the match.

Back-to-back forehand errors put de Minaur in trouble, then Samuel ripped a huge return that did not come back. But any chance of a mid-match twist evaporated as de Minaur produced a sharp return game, capped with a whipped forehand that landed near Samuel’s feet in the service box to secure the break back.

It was the type of point that illustrated the difference between the pair.

De Minaur’s controlled aggression, mixed with the type of rock-of-Gibraltar defence that his rival would rarely see on the Challenger circuit, forced Samuel to play beyond his means at times to try to win points.

Another break in the seventh game was the beginning of the end for Samuel, who showed enough to suggest he might be knocking on the door of the top 100 soon.

But for de Minaur, this was little more than a tune-up as he struck 27 winners to Samuel’s 19, while committing 17 fewer unforced errors.

The Australians have made a solid start. James Duckworth won on Sunday night before Daria Kasatkina joined him and de Minaur in the next round with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Zeynep Sonmez.

Unlike de Minaur, Roland-Garros has been a happy hunting ground for Kasatkina, including making the semi-finals in 2022 and at least the fourth round on three other occasions.

However, four-time champion Iga Swiatek and 28th seed Anastasia Potapova eliminated Gold Coast teenager Emerson Jones and an out-of-sorts Maya Joint, respectively, by the same 6-1, 6-2 scoreline.

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