Alex de Minaur has swept past fellow Australian John Millman to secure a second-round showdown with former world No.1 Andy Murray at the Zhuhai Championships.
De Minaur took just 70 minutes to snap Queenslander Millman’s five-match winning streak 6-1 6-3 and now faces five-time Australian Open runner-up Murray, who claimed his first ATP Tour singles victory since January by beating Tennys Sandgren in the opening round.
Murray had lost to American Sandgren in the second singles match of his comeback last month, and this was a demonstration of the progress he has made since then as he claimed a 6-3 6-7 (8-6) 6-1 victory.
The Scot had not won since a first-round win over James Duckworth in Brisbane right at the start of the season, prior to the hip resurfacing operation he underwent at the end of January, had the Scot one won a contest at this level.
Murray played his first tournament at second-tier Challenger level in 14 years in Majorca while his rivals were doing battle at the US Open and had been training hard since ahead of four consecutive tournament weeks.
Australian qualifier Alexei Popyrin, meanwhile, has lost in the first round to veteran Spaniard Fernando Verdasco at the ATP Chengdu event.