'Not human': Tennis world stunned by 'insane' Alex de Minaur moment
Alex de Minaur has capped off a 44-shot rally with John Millman with an extraordinary winner in Rotterdam.
De Minaur won the all-Australian clash at the World Tennis Tournament 6-1 6-4, with the highlight moment coming in the eighth game of the second set.
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With Millman in control of the rally and dictating play, de Minaur was on multiple occasions forced to play defence and simply keep the ball in play.
The younger Aussie played a series of slice backhands and even forehands as he was stretched to all parts of the court.
The rally culminated when a short reply allowed Millman to find an angle on a forehand that dragged de Minaur wide of the tramlines but he somehow, on the dead run and lunging, swatted a forehand winner down the line.
Millman dropped his racquet in utter disbelief, with commentators wondering what they had just witnessed.
"Oh, goodness me. You have go to be kidding me," one commentator said.
"Hell of a shot that," Millman could be heard saying.
As Millman picked up his racquet and glanced at de Minaur in awe, the commentator added: "An incredible exchange. Marathon rally. How on earth has he produced this, to win the point?"
The Tennis TV Twitter account described De Minaur as "not human", while fans were in a frenzy over the "insane' winner.
Insane point for DeMinaur in Rotterdam on 4-3 2nd set
— francesco roma (@fraromanell) March 2, 2021
Did that just happen!!!!??? 😳😳😲😲😲😲😲😲😲
— Chika Phillip Onyirimba (@PhillipChika) March 2, 2021
Mind blowing🤯
— Robert Paez (@robertrpaez) March 2, 2021
Unbelievable, what a rally by Alex!
— Kate Bartlett (@bartlett_kate) March 2, 2021
Damn that was good I jumped off the couch yelling and terrified the cats! Great match guys! 💚🎾💛
— 💦🌏🌈❤️🙏🏼 Lisa (@LisaRandle22) March 2, 2021
Crowd would have been absolutely loving this!!!! Already the shot of the year??
— Karl Watson (@karlbenwatson) March 2, 2021
what the heck? I honestly think Millman is one of the most fittest on the tour and Alex is as slippery at Medvedev but not as tall. Amazing and a pleasure
— Alfredo Pantaleon (@ApantaleonJr) March 2, 2021
De Minaur sets up clash with Nishikori
World No.23 De Minaur, who lifted his fourth ATP Tour trophy in January at the Antalya Open, won 23 of his 27 first-service points against Millman and moves on to face Japan's Kei Nishikori in the second round.
Meanwhile, Australian Open semi-finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas continued his impressive start to the year with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 victory over Egor Gerasimov in his tournament opener.
Second-seeded Greek Tsitsipas was calm throughout the almost two-hour match to prevail and improve his record in 2021 to seven wins and one loss.
Fourth seed Andrey Rublev advanced to round two with a 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 defeat of American qualifier Marcos Giron, to set up a meeting with former World No.1 Andy Murray.
Their only previous meeting came at the Australian Open in 2017, when a 19-year-old Rublev won just five games.
"He destroyed me once already," Rublev said.
"I hope it's going to be a great match. I hope we're going to have great rallies, great fight."
Eighth-seeded Stan Wawrinka's disappointing start to the season continued as he was beaten 6-4 7-5 by Rublev's Russian compatriot Karen Khachanov.
Meanwhile, Poland's Hubert Hurkacz saw off the experienced Adrian Mannarino 6-3 7-6 (8-6) while Jeremy Chardy squeezed past fellow Frenchman Ugo Humbert 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4).
with AAP
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