Tennis, Alex De Minaur def. Matteo Arnaldi in straight sets as his Italian affair continues with Fabio Cobolli for the 3rd Round

Great to see our Aussie own Alex De Minaur advance into the third round after following straight sets win (6-3, 6-0, 6-3) earlier in the afternoon v Italian Matteo Analdi. He might have been not far behind from the beginning but the Demon has worked his way up with some excellent challenged that reflected his natural game. The first set was there before he too good unchallenged in the 2nd set where De Minaur took his time well towards the end with the win after just two hours of play at Rod Laver Arena. His next opponent will be another Italian in 21-year-old Fabio Cobolli who just defeated Pavel Kotov out of a four-set contest at Court 6 (5-7, 3-6, 7-5 & 2-6). Meanwhile, Arnaldi may have put up a great fight on occasions but his time is now up after a few days at Melbourne Park with the straight sets loss. He started the opening game well before doing the best he can to stay in the fight during the 3rd set. However, he couldn’t bridge the upper half form where Arnaldi just couldn’t keep up with De Minaur that saw him being left out through every set of this match. He had a great career moment off the back end of last year such as the fourth round at the US Open as well as the Davis Cup trophy for his country, but there’s still some work to do if wants to be good as Jannik Sinner next time when it comes to the next few grand slams throughout 2024.