Alex de Minaur reaches ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament quarter-finals with win over Mackenzie McDonald

The winning ways continue for Australia’s Alex de Minaur, who has advanced to the quarter-finals at the ATP 500 Rotterdam event.

Alex de Minaur is into the quarter-finals at the ATP 500 tournament at Rotterdam. Picture: AFP

A quarter-final date with top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas beckons for Australia’s Alex de Minaur after a rollercoaster second-round victory in Rotterdam.

De Minaur eventually saw off 49th-ranked American Mackenzie McDonald 7-6 (8-6) 1-6 6-4 in a minute short of 2½ hours to reach the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament last eight.

It is the 22-year-old’s first ATP Tour quarter-final since he won his fifth career title at Eastbourne in June. Earlier, he blitzed former top-10 Belgian David Goffin in the first round.

A mid-year Covid-19 diagnosis derailed de Minaur’s Tokyo Olympics bid and triggered a prolonged form slump once he returned to the tour.

But de Minaur is back in form this year, already boasting a career-best fourth-round effort at the Australian Open after beating top-10 Italian Matteo Berrettini and France’s Ugo Humbert at the ATP Cup.

He jumped out to a 3-0 lead over McDonald at the ATP 500 indoor event but needed a tie-break to go a set up before losing seven of the next eight games to trail by a break in the final set.

Alex de Minaur is into the Rotterdam quarter-finals, where he could play Stefanos Tsitsipas. Picture: Getty Images

But de Minaur was back on serve by the second game, then survived his only other break point in the third set to hold for a 4-3 lead before breaking the American three games later to claim victory.

The world No.34 will next face either Tsitsipas or Belarusian Ilya Ivashka.

Tsitsipas has won all six clashes with de Minaur at ATP level but needed three sets to win their most-recent meeting at Indian Wells in October.

Meanwhile, another Australian, Jordan Thompson, advanced to the quarter-finals at the ATP 250 Dallas Open with a 7-5 7-6 (7-1) defeat of eighth seed Brandon Nakashima, of the US.

Thompson awaits the winner between No.4 seed Jenson Brooksby and Andreas Seppi.