After a four-set battle to start his US Open campaign Alex de Minaur put his foot down in the second with a straight-sets victory in just 86 minutes to make a grand slam statement.
The 13th seed demolished Chinese giant-killer Yibing Wu 6-1 6-2 6-1 to reach the final 32 for the fifth time in seven trips to New York.
Having looked sluggish and laborious in his opening match against Kazakh qualifier Timofey Skatov, de Minaur put in a second round performance more befitting of his seeding and his N0.12 world ranking.
The Australian broke his opponent seven times, won 82 per cent of his first-serve points andmade just 10 unforced errors in 22 games, collecting his 13th win from his past 17 matches to join countryman Rinky Hijikata in the third round.
He’ll now face either Chile‘s world No.25 Nicolas Jarry or 17-year-old American wildcard Alex Michelsen on Sunday for a place in the last 16 of the final major of 2023.
De Minaur is looking to advance to the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2020, when he made the quarterfinals in a career-best Grand Slam run.
Hijikata, who is enjoying his best ever grand slam run, will play China‘s world No.67 Zhizhen Zhang on Saturday.
