De Minaur revives teenaged rivallry at Queen’s

Alex de Minaur extracted delayed grass-court revenge from Canadian Denis Shapovalov on Wednesday as the top seeded Australian advanced to the Queen’s club quarter-finals  

De Minaur lost to Shapo a decade ago in the Wimbledon junior final, but levelled that particular rivallry with a 6-4,6-1 result to keep a perfect record at the ATP level with the North American.

De Minaur advanced in 63 minutes as he won his sixth in a row in the series and lined up a quarter-final with Brandon Nakashima.

The quick victory was in contrast to de Minaur’s success in the opening round, when he needed two hours to put away Canada’s Gabrille Diallo

“We (he and Shapovalov have grown up together and played plenty of matches on the Tour. That one [at Wimbledon] was a special one,” the top-seeded winner said.

“I would have loved to have gotten that (2016) win, because it would have given me the World No. 1 junior ranking.

“But here we are 10 years later, and I’m still enjoying myself.”

De MInaur, the 2023 finalist against Carlos Alcaraz here, broke Shapo five times as he takes aim at a third career title on grass.