It proved to be an exhausting outing for Alex de Minaur in his first outing at the 2026 Cincinnati Masters. After receiving a first-round bye, he took on qualifier Quentin Halys in the second round and racked up a hard-fought 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory. Though the Australian may have advanced to the next round, the win was far from comfortable. He was dragged to the back foot on numerous occasions and even lost his cool during the third set, which resulted in an angry outburst.

With the third set tied at 4-4, Halys’ serve was put under pressure by De Minaur. He earned a total of four break points during the game, but failed to convert any of them. As he lost his fourth chance to break by hitting a shot way wide of the baseline, De Minaur, who is known to remain calm in even the tensest situations, couldn’t control his emotions and smashed his racket to the ground. The racket broke into pieces and had to be replaced immediately.

Halys would go on to defend his serve, increasing De Minaur’s frustration even more. But the World No. 8 regained his composure in the games that followed, and the set was dragged to a tiebreaker. De Minaur clinched the breaker 7-4 to win the grueling match.

After the encounter, De Minaur reflected on his recent results, stating that he was in desperate need of rediscovering his energy and positivity in the past few months.

“I feel like the last couple weeks I haven’t brought out that intensity and passion and being as vocal as that I could have been or I have been in the past,” he said on The Tennis Channel. “So, one of the big things for me was to try and bring that passion, bring that energy, be vocal about it, bring as much positivity as I can.”

The comeback win over Halys would mean a lot for De Minaur, as his form hasn’t been up to the mark in recent times. After suffering an exit in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon against Flavio Cobolli, the Australian began his hard-court season with his title defense at the Citi Open.

But things didn’t quite go as planned, and De Minaur suffered a 7-6, 6-4 defeat to Brandon Nakashima in the quarterfinals. He also wasn’t able to improve his form at the Canadian Open and was knocked out in the second round after a 5-7, 7-6, 6-1 defeat to Cameron Norrie. De Minaur pretty much survived a scare in his first match at Cincinnati.

Things are only about to get tougher for the 27-year-old in the coming rounds. Both his second- and third-round opponents can turn out to be a major challenge and have the capability to eliminate him from the tournament.

Alex de Minaur faces a tough draw at the Cincinnati Masters

De Minaur will be up against Arthur Fery in the third round. This will be the first time that the two will be taking on each other in a tour-level match. This is the Brit’s first tournament since his Cinderella run at Wimbledon, where he reached the semifinals as a wildcard.

Fery took a break of over a month and returned to action in Cincinnati, where he defeated James Duckworth 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 in the first round. Looking at his current form, he can be quite a tough opponent to overcome for De Minaur, who is desperately looking to improve his results.

If De Minaur does move past Fery, then he will play the winner of the match between Jiri Lehecka and Arthur Fils in the fourth round. Either of these players is capable of defeating De Minaur. Though the Australian has a 2-1 advantage over both of them in the H2H record, it will be far from a walk in the park if he faces one of them next week.

While De Minaur hasn’t met Lehecka so far this season, he did clash with Fils earlier in the first round of the Rotterdam Open in February. The 27-year-old had won the match 7-6, 6-2 and had gone on to rack up four more wins in the tournament to clinch his first and only title of the season so far.

Will De Minaur manage to make a deep run in Cincinnati and improve his run of form, or will he suffer yet another early exit? We will have to wait and see.