Alex de Minaur downs familiar foe once again as last Aussie woman bows out of Wimbledon singles

Australia’s Alex de Minaur has taken down Jaume Munar for the second time in a major this year to reach the third round of Wimbledon, while Daria Saville lost a thrilling and heartbreaking match to 18th seed Marta Kostyuk.

Just as he did in the second round at Roland Garros, de Minaur easily handled Munar, who was once a junior rival of the Australian number one when he lived in Munar’s native Spain.

While those days leant more in the Spaniard’s favour, de Minaur extended to 4-0 his professional record against Munar with a 6-2, 6-2, 7-5 win in just over two hours on court three.

It set up the prospect of a third-round clash with fellow Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis, should he beat French qualifier Lucas Pouille later in the day.

De Minaur had looked in the mood to race to victory so quickly against an opponent struggling with double-fault trouble — Munar coughed up nine in total — that he would be able to finish before his girlfriend, British number one Katie Boulter, started her all-British election day special against Harriet Dart.

“I might have made it for the start if I hadn’t got broken in the last set,” he told the crowd afterwards.

“But I’ll shower, cool down and do my best to get over there to support Katie.

“This is always the surface I’ve enjoyed playing on, it’s special to play at Wimbledon and hopefully I can go deep into the tournament now.”

The news was not so good on the women’s side, as Saville’s loss to Kostyuk left Australia without a woman in the singles draw, but she did not go down without a fight.

Saville spent three hours and 10 minutes on court against her Ukrainian opponent before ultimately going down 4-6, 7-6(7/2), 6-4.

Australia’s world number 82 looked on track for her first third round at the grasscourt major since 2018 after taking the first set and leading 3-0 and 5-2 in the second set.

But Kostyuk, a quarterfinalist at this year’s Australian Open, battled back and forced a tie-break with a 20-minute game in the second set that contained seven deuces on Saville’s serve.

Kostyuk powered through the breaker and, despite a spirited effort from Saville, advanced to the third round at SW19 for the second straight time.

ABC/AAP