Alex de Minaur has progressed to the next round of the Paris Masters by beating Gabriel Diallo in three sets in his opening match.
De Minaur has joined an elite group of players by managing to reach the last 16 in eight of the nine Masters 1000 events this season.
In Vienna last week, De Minaur was praised by Jannik Sinner but fell at the semifinal hurdle once again in losing to the Italian.
The Aussie has just about qualified for the ATP Finals in Turin, with Lorenzo Musetti crashing out in Paris, a huge help to those players just above him.
De Minaur’s win over Diallo proved to be hard-fought in the end, and the world number six deserves immense praise for his victory.
Alex de Minaur deserves credit for win over Gabriel Diallo
The first set proved a really topsy-turvy affair with De Minaur losing his serve when serving for the first set at 5-2.
Diallo struck back to take the set to a tie-breaker, and all of the momentum was with the Canadian player.
However, De Minaur did what he does so often and dug deep to come back into form and take the first set by winning the tie-break.
It would have been extremely easy for De Minaur to throw the towel in and go under after almost snatching defeat in the first set from the jaws of victory.
His resilience has long been considered his best attribute, and once again, it was on display against Diallo, even if he did come back and win the second set.
De Minaur now does something only Jannik Sinner can match
De Minaur has enjoyed a consistent year on the ATP Tour, and he now needs to start turning that into titles.
There is still a lot to prove for De Minaur when it comes to getting over the line and winning big titles but nobody can doubt his commitment to the cause.
After his win over Diallo, De Minaur now joins Sinner in being one of only two players to win over 41 matches on hard courts over the last two seasons.
Sinner won 53 last year and now De Minaur has taken his haul to 41 with the win over Diallo.
It now remains to be seen whether or not De Minaur can go all the way in Paris and if he does, he might look back at the first set against Diallo as a bit of a sliding doors moment.
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