Wimbledon 2026; Alex de Minaur progresses at Wimbledon, who is Roman Andres Burruchaga’s father, Australian results at Wimbledon, news, analysis

After a testing opening against the son of a World Cup hero, Alex de Minaur dusted the rust from his game when storming into the second round at Wimbledon on Tuesday as a major hurdle in his path was ousted in an epic.

The fifth-seeded Australian started slowly against Roman Andres Burruchaga but worked through the gears as the match progressed to finish in dominant fashion in his 7-6 (5) 6-1 6-0 on Court 3.

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It was a bright start to his campaign and his hopes of another decent run at the All England Club improved when No.4 seed Ben Shelton, who shaped as a potential quarterfinal rival, was beaten in an epic by Finland’s Otto Virtanen.

On a day where 10 Aussies were in action, Queenslander Kimberly Birrell and Brisbane-based veteran James Duckworth also progressed, though many of the Australian contingent were scheduled for later in the day.

But the 27-year-old Sydneysider carries the Aussie hopes on his shoulders and he started his campaign in style in a clash that covered a distinct World Cup flavour.

Should Australia keep its World Cup hopes alive by defeating Egypt on Friday, their Rd of 16 rival is favoured to be South American powerhouses Argentina and de Minaur and his beaten rival at Wimbledon will have a keen eye on that clash.

As a youth, de Minaur was an extremely talented soccer player and was forced to make a choice between football and tennis while living in Spain prior to returning to Sydney as a 12-year-old.

But Burrachaga has an even bigger family interest in soccer than de Minaur, a passionate Real Madrid fan.

It is now 40 years ago since Burruchaga’s father Jorge kicked the World Cup winning goal for Argentina in the 1986 decider, and one day after that famous anniversary, the powerful right-hander set out to pull off a big Wimbledon upset.

The Demon conceded the first penalty, so to speak, of the match when dropping his opening service game but it was not long before he was able to work back in a tight opening set that progressed to a tiebreaker.

Matches can turn on a twist and de Minaur got lucky in the tiebreaker when, on the third point, a bunt down the line that looked to be going wide instead clipped the tape and dropped dead.

Burruchaga reacted as though a goal had been scored via a deflection, dropping his racquet in disbelief at his misfortune.

But he still made the world No.6 work to clinch the first set, though a couple of late gifts including a double-fault and then whipped backhand wide gave the Aussie the ascendancy.

With his nose ahead de Minaur, a quarterfinalist at the All England Club in 2024, whipped through the encounter with ease.

“It is difficult because as much as … he might not be as confident on the grass, it still takes a while to kind of really notice that or play yourself into a match,” he said.

“I feel like today, because of a little bit of his spin, the court felt a little bit slow (and) I struggled to get rhythm early on. Sometimes you have to play three, four or five games to really start to notice what the weaknesses are, because you haven’t seen enough of them play.

“I think that was the case today. I played my way into it, then all of a sudden I started to find the patterns that worked for me. It all started to make a little bit more sense.”

The Australian star faces a familiar foe in the second round in French veteran Adrian Mannarino, who saves his best tennis for grass. As a percentage of career wins, no man has a higher success rate on the surface among current players.

But the seven-time grand slam quarterfinalist has won five of his six outings against the left-handed Mannarino, including a recent triumph on grass in the Netherlands last month.

“You look at the numbers, he’s one of the better grass court players we’ve had over the last X amount of years,” de Minaur said.

“He’s an incredibly tricky opponent, right? When we play each other, I think we both know how to make each other feel uncomfortable. (In) a lot of our matches, you won’t see a lot of topspin. There’s going to be a very low net clearance, a lot of flat shots, a lot of low balls.

“He’s not a player that you can kind of get a rhythm with, right? It’s not a normal player that maybe is going to give you a couple looks at balls.

“Every ball is normally below the net, right, it’s so flat and so low. It makes a completely different type of game style. Yeah, I’ve got to get ready to get low. The legs are going to feel it.”

As de Minaur was working his way through a tough opening set, Western Australian Talia Gibson became the first Aussie woman to depart, though she enjoyed some good moments against 21st seed Marie Bouzkova when falling 6-1 3-6 6-2.

But Birrell joined Daria Kasatkina in the second round with a maiden win at Wimbledon when overcoming a second set dip to defeat Alina Korneeva 6-3 0-6 6-2.

An upset winner over elite American Jessica Pegula at Roland Garros in late May, the 28-year-old is ticking off minor milestones in a career that was threatened by a serious elbow injury in her early 20s.

Currently ranked 72, Birrell said that for a period after her return to the circuit, she was happy just to be able to compete. But now she wants to press further in tournaments and has a goal of breaking into the top 50 as soon as possible.

“I just need to keep believing in myself and I just know everyone that I play is going to be a challenge,” she said.

“I don’t want to just turn up and be happy that I’m playing. I want to be in the top 50. There was a point where I came back after my elbow and started playing again, that I was just happy to be here, but now I do want to be in the third round, so that’s my goal going into the next match.”

Duckworth is producing solid results in his 30s and was a strong 6-4 4-6 7-5 6-4 winner over Tallon Griekspoor.

There were bright points, but there were also distinct moments of disappointments for the Aussies, with the injury-plagued Thanasi Kokkinakis falling narrowly shy of upsetting 10th seed Alexander Bublik when beaten 4-6 6-3 6-7 (10) 6-3 6-4.

On the comeback trail, the South Australian played well but was unable to hold the momentum for long enough in a marathon lasting 3hr 40min.

Meanwhile, Rinky Hijikata was able to snare the third set in a match that was postponed due to light on Monday but was also unable to go on with it when beaten in five sets by Jasper de Jong.

Dual-Wimbledon quarterfinalist Ajla Tomljanovic also fell short in her clash with Mariam Bolkvadze when beaten 6-2 2-6 6-4, with a slow start to the deciding set proving costly.