De Minaur ousts Verdasco

Sydney : Australian teenager Alex de Minaur continued his eye-catching start to the year by beating former top-10 player Fernando Verdasco at the Sydney International.

Coming off a week that saw him topple Milos Raonic on his way to the Brisbane semi-finals, De Minaur backed up strongly with a 6-4 6-2 victory over veteran Spanish left-hander Verdasco.

The 18-year-old De Minaur is being nurtured in his early days on tour by fellow Australian Lleyton Hewitt, the former US Open and Wimbledon champion who made a big splash as a teenager in events at home before impressing further afield too.

De Minaur said on the ATP website: “I love the way I’m playing at the moment, and I really just want to keep it going.”

He faces Damir Dzumhur, the seventh seed from Bosnia-Herzegovina, on Wednesday for a quarter-final place.

Former British number two Aljaz Bedene, who reverted nationality to his native Slovenian during the close season, lost 1-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 to French player Benoit Paire.

German eighth seed Mischa Zverev succumbed 7-5 6-3 to Argentinian Leonardo Mayer, while Spain’s Feliciano Lopez and American Jared Donaldson came through their first-round tests unscathed.

At the ASB Classic in Auckland, South Korean Hyeon Chung teed up a second-round clash with American John Isner by beating American Tennys Sandgren 6-3 5-7 6-3.