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The arrival of the heat, with conditions in Paris set to top 30C throughout the week in a city that retains the warmth, is the second bit of good news for de Minaur, whose best form on the shifting surface has come when the conditions are livelier.<\/p>\n
In a break from his recent pattern, the No.8 seed opted to play an event the week leading into a grand slam and it was circuit-breaker he needed to rediscover his best form after a recent lean spell.<\/p>\n
After starting the clay season with a run to the quarterfinals in the Monte Carlo Masters, he lost three straight matches in Barcelona, Madrid and Rome, which prompted him to accept a late entry into the event in Germany.<\/p>\n
There he posted three wins over top-20 ranked rivals before succumbing to tough American Tommy Paul in a match were he won more points, but not the most important ones, in the semifinal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last month, it\u2019s been very tough. I mean, that\u2019s no secret. I think you could see I was feeling on court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom someone who\u2019s quite good at managing his own emotions, I felt like the last month … you could definitely feel the situation I was in, and so that was something that, of course, I wanted to get out of. I wanted to get out of the slump and see the light.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demon blows chance to make Hamburg Final | 00:52<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old, who reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and then claimed a title in Rotterdam in February prior to the slump, said that he realised he had \u201cswitched off mentally\u201d for a period and has worked to rectify that. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot of work that was put in and … kind of the mentality was to put your head down, put the work in. That\u2019s the only way you\u2019re going to get out of it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cEventually … something clicked in my mind. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the fact that I forgot how to play tennis for a month. I think it was just something kind of switched off mentally and I\u2019m glad that I was able to kind of find that back.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Minaur opens his French Open campaign on Monday in a match to be played at 7pm AEST against English qualifier Toby Samuel, a player he knows only a little bit about.<\/p>\n
But the Aussie loves the heat and while he is aware the warmer conditions will help a weapon of his 23-year-old rival, who stands 191cm and has a powerful serve, de Minaur is confident he has the conditioning to revel over the next fortnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great. We\u2019re not too used to seeing … the sun come out and it\u2019s going to be very warm for the whole first week, so it definitely changes the conditions and the playing style,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s a lot quicker, livelier. It\u2019s a little bit to adapt to from the cold, rainy weather in Hamburg, but I\u2019m very excited to see the sun and the hot weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t seen much of him play (but) I\u2019ve watched his matches here (and) watched his match against (David) Goffin. He\u2019s a big tall guy (who has a) good serve and good forehand. Obviously in these lively conditions it\u2019s going to be a challenge, and, and I think the biggest thing is for me to be ready for a physical battle. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hot. It\u2019s going to be warm. It\u2019s going to be physical. (I\u2019ve) played a lot of tennis and now it\u2019s more about playing on instinct and getting ready for him to throw the kitchen sink at me. Hopefully it should be a nice battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demon finds form ahead of French Open | 01:18<\/p>\n
Duckworth, meanwhile, has been in good form at clay in the tier below the ATP Tour, having reached the final of a challenger event in San Luis Potosi prior to a title run in Mexico City.<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old, who is through to the second round Paris for the second time in his career, was in a dominant position against his younger Canadian rival when he pulled out while trailing 6-3 4-1 and said he loved the heat as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do always feel more comfortable when it is hotter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt changes the conditions and the court massively and you could feel it today, that the ball flies and bounces around a lot more and that suits my game. If the weather can stay like that, I think I can play some good tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loving the heat, James Duckworth progressed to the second round in Paris for just the second time in his career with a good performance on Sunday. (Photo by Dan Istitene\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Duckworth\u2019s reward is a potential clash against Rafael Jodar, the 27th seed and rising star of the circuit who has been in sensational form through the clay season, or American Aleksandar Kovacevic, whose recent form has also been good.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be an interesting match. Jodar has made some big strides in the last few months and \u2018Kova\u2019 is a great player as well,\u201d Duckworth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully they can play for 10 hours (on Monday) and bash each other up a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
A dual-Wimbledon and former US Open quarterfinalist, Tomljanovic grew up on clay and debuted at Roland Garros back in 2014 with a run to the fourth round. But in a quirk given her background, Paris has been a graveyard of sorts since.<\/p>\n
The talented but injury-plagued right-hander revelled in the heat initially when skipping out to a set and 3-0 lead before the American tightened up her powerful game and after snaring the second set in a tiebreaker, was able to dictate terms. <\/p>\n
Tomljanovic, who fell 3-6 7-6 (5) 6-3, has been battling plantar fasciitis but cannot wait to get to the grass court season, with an event in Birmingham next week her first port of call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just looking forward to putting his horrific six weeks behind me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s probably the worst stretch I\u2019ve had in my career, which feels odd. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever really lost this many matches in a row, so that honestly feels a bit new at this stage of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
The duo were the only Australians of the 13 in the singles in action on day one of the first round, which stretches over three days given the Sunday start.<\/p>\n
But De Minaur will kickstart proceedings on Court 14 at 11am. Emerging Australian talent Emerson Jones, who was the world\u2019s top-ranked junior two years ago, has a midday outing on centre court with four-time champion Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Alex de Minaur declared he had regained his mojo, James Duckworth made it a bright start for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64302,2095,13832,64,63,337510,937,337507,337501,2791,258592,17062,285359,3567,18777,337511,66054,337508,2057,22496,2592,148640,5717,1806,337502,337509,150985,2636,2328,70624,337506,74452,147268,203237,2557,2184,23956,337504,927,2041,3583,2591,12022,99083,246282,24143,3576,114752,337512,129789,3595,2020,85,747,337503,3712,184217,3586,2062,337505],"class_list":["post-691673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ajla-tomljanovic","tag-america","tag-atp-tour","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ball-flies","tag-barcelona","tag-bright-start","tag-canadian-rival","tag-central-america","tag-challenger-event","tag-city-of-birmingham","tag-clay-season","tag-courtney-walsh","tag-dominant-position","tag-emerging-australian-talent","tag-emerson-jones","tag-english-qualifier","tag-europe","tag-four-time-champion","tag-france","tag-gabriel-diallo","tag-germany","tag-grand-slam","tag-grass-court-season","tag-grass-courts","tag-hamburg","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-italy","tag-james-duckworth","tag-kickstart-proceedings","tag-kingdom-of-the-netherlands","tag-kitchen-sink","tag-lean-spell","tag-madrid","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-city","tag-midday-outing","tag-monaco","tag-north-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-paris","tag-province-of-barcelona","tag-province-of-madrid","tag-rafael-jodar","tag-roland-garros","tag-rome","tag-rotterdam","tag-san-luis-potosi","tag-south-holland","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-testing-period","tag-title-run","tag-toby-samuel","tag-united-kingdom","tag-western-europe","tag-worst-slump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}