In his Ultimate Tennis Showdown debut, Alex de Minaur also called "The Demon," was absolutely relentless. The Aussie ran through Dan Evans and Pablo Andujar without dropping a single quarter on Friday to reach the final round against France's Richard Gasquet. And on Sunday, de Minaur displayed more dominating play to top Gasquet, 3-1, in the event's final.
The first two quarters of the affair were really all about de Minaur as he moved the ball effortlessly from corner to corner, and finished points off aggressively at the net. The world No. 29 was nearly invincible and was well on his way to posting another flawless scoreline.
However, Gasquet who survived an epic sudden-death thriller against Taylor Fritz in the previous round wasn't ready to hand over the win. At 16-16 in the third quarter he approached the net, reacted perfectly to de Minaur's heavy passing shot, and cut off the angle to put away a backhand volley and save a match point.
"The net play was crucial in this quarter" host Sophie Amiach said following the tight third quarter.