De Minaur dropped only one game across the second and third sets in a 7-6(5) 6-1 6-0 victory over Argentina's rank no. 65 Roman Burrachaga after a sluggish start in which he dropped his first service game of the match.
There was very much a World Cup flavour to the match with the game being played one day after the 40-year anniversary of Burrachaga's father, Jorge, scoring the winning goal for Argentina in the 1986 FIFA World Cup final against West Germany.
Burrachaga's rally game struggled against the impactful forehand of De Minaur and his defences were shattered after losing a first set tiebreak on court number three, with the Australian number five seed drawing a lot of confidence from the tiebreak win and running rampant thereafter.
De Minaur's victory has set up a second round meeting with rank no. 40 Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, against whom De Minaur has a five-match winning streak dating back to 2022, two of which were on grass.
Should he make it that far, the 27-year-old will not be meeting a top-four seed until the semi-finals at the very earliest after American Ben Shelton lost a four-and-a-half hour epic to rank no. 140 Otto Virtanen.
It was just the third Grand Slam victory of Virtanen's career and means De Minaur is not likely to be tested until he potentially meets Italy's Flavio Cobolli in the fourth round.
Cobolli was leading two sets to one when his game was interrupted by bad light and, should he advance, he'll take on another Australian after James Duckworth defeated Tallon Griekspoor 6-4 4-6 7-5 6-4 in his first round match.
Duckworth and De Minaur were the only two Aussie men to advance to the second round of the eight to enter the draw.
Alexei Popyrin lost in straights to number 13 seed Jiri Lehecka, Thanasi Kokkinakis lost a five-set epic to number ten seed Alexander Bublik, Adam Walton fell to Croatia's Dino Prizmic in four sets, Aleksandar Vukic lost to American Jenson Brooksby in straights, Rinki Hijikata was edged out in five by Dutchman Jesper De Jong, and qualifier Dane Sweeny failed to win a set against 35-year-old wildcard entrant Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
Wimbledon 2026
Wimbledon is taking place from June 29th to July 13th at the All England Club in south-west London. It serves as the third of the four Grand Slams of the tennis season, and is the only one played on grass.
Men's singles draw and results | Women's singles draw and results | All you need to know about the tournament | Find all our Wimbledon coverage here
Aaron Murphy has been with Flashscore since 2018 and, as the founding editor of the Australian newsdesk, has reported on-site at several major events in Melbourne including the Australian Open, State of Origin, A-League, NBL and international cricket. You can read his pieces here and contact him on X or LinkedIn.
