At the China Open, Alex de Minaur triumphed over French player Quentin Halys, ranked 50th in the world, in a thrilling match that lasted nearly three hours. The Australian athlete secured victory with a scoreline of 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 after battling back from a challenging position.

Halys initially took control of the match by winning the first set 6-3 and even led 5-3 in the second set, serving for the match. However, de Minaur demonstrated resilience, breaking Halys’s serve and winning a closely contested tiebreak 7-5 to level the match.

The final set was tightly contested as well, but de Minaur managed to break Halys at 5-5 and ultimately closed out the match after 2 hours and 47 minutes of intense play. This victory not only balanced their head-to-head record at 2-2 but also advanced de Minaur to the quarterfinals, where he is set to face Andrey Rublev, currently ranked 20th in the world.

Rublev himself had a tough match, overcoming fellow Russian Roman Safiullin with a score of 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. De Minaur aims to replicate or improve upon his performance from last year’s China Open, where he reached the semifinals before falling to then-world number one Jannik Sinner.

Throughout 2023, de Minaur’s season has been characterized by ups and downs. He began the year strong, reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and winning the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam in February. He also made it to the third round at the French Open and the fourth round at Wimbledon, although he faced an early exit in the second round of the US Open.

Despite the setbacks, he rebounded impressively, leading Australia to victory against Poland in their Davis Cup matchup and defeating the in-form Alexander Zverev at the Laver Cup in London. Zverev, who has claimed two Grand Slam titles this year, was the top seed in Beijing and was slated to compete against China’s Juncheng Shang later that day.