![\"Damm\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0e072a0758fd3381d286fdfba6395029.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nAlex de Minaur has begun his bid to wrench his French Open woes out of his system, returning to winning ways on the grass courts of a Dutch tournament he won two years ago.<\/p>\n
Deeply deflated and self-critical after his defeat by Jakub Mensik at Roland Garros just under a fortnight ago, the Australian No.1 had been undecided whether to take a break or throw himself straight back into action for a pick-me-up on the grass, a surface he much prefers.<\/p>\n
Having eventually decided to “get straight back on the bike” by taking a wildcard for the event he won in 2024, de Minaur, ‘s-Hertogenbosch’s second seed, made heavy weather of winning a “very, very tough match” against impressive young American qualifier Martin Damm in a rain-interrupted round-of-16 affair.<\/p>\n
Back at ‘s-Hertogenbosch for the traditional pre-Wimbledon event, the Australian No.1 looked as if he was thinking ”here we go again”, disgusted to have thrown away a 4-0 first-set lead as Damm battled back, helped by a lengthy rain stoppage, to forge a 5-4 lead.<\/p>\n
The American proved stubborn in a tiebreak de Minaur largely controlled too, saving three set points until the Australian took it out 10-8.<\/p>\n
It didn’t get any easier for “Demon” in the second stanza as Damm, playing with confident aggression, gave up just one break point, which he managed to salvage.<\/p>\n
But receiving at 5-6, de Minaur made his move, earning a couple of match points, which Damm repelled, before the American could do nothing about a sensational backhand passing shot at full stretch that ended his resistance after an hour and 51 minutes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Martin Damm made life difficult for his esteemed Australian opponent at ‘s-Hertogenbosch. (EPA PHOTO)<\/p>\n
Asked what had been his biggest challenge on his return to action, de Minaur admitted with a wry smile: “Everything!<\/p>\n
“It was a tough day, a little bit of wind, a little bit of rain, and a very good opponent, a very tricky opponent, so I’m happy I managed to get that win, but it was a very, very tough match.<\/p>\n
“It feels great to be back on the grass. There’s definitely things I would like to get a little bit better, but, hey, I can’t complain. It’s a part of the year which I really like, and even though we’re not having the best weather, I actually enjoy being here in Holland and I’m hoping that I can stay here for a long time.”<\/p>\n
De Minaur, who will meet French opposition in the next round in either fifth-seeded Ugo Humbert or qualifier Benjamin Bonzi, wasn’t the only Australian winner at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, with James McCabe earning a fine win over Belgian Zizou Bergs 6-7 (2-7) 6-2 7-6 (7-4).<\/p>\n
In the WTA event running alongside, Ajla Tomljanovic also looked glad to be back on the grass courts as she earned an emphatic 6-3 6-1 win over Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, a player ranked 55 places higher than Australia’s 33-year-old world No.109.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur has begun his bid to wrench his French Open woes out of his system, returning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[362,207,1810,1023,727,220],"class_list":["post-17562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-french-open","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-french-open","tag-grass-courts","tag-jakub-mensik","tag-martin-damm","tag-roland-garros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}