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Alex de Minaur is rebounding confidently in his first tournament since the Australian Open, racing into the Rotterdam Open quarter-finals.
Alex de Minaur was bemoaning this week how difficult it was to have to spend Valentine's Day away from his girlfriend Katie Boulter, the British No.1, because of their separate tennis schedules.
"That's the tough part of the tennis tours, that we didn't get to spend some of these special days together," de Minaur had noted ruefully in an interview with the ATP, saying how he had fancied a romantic dinner.
The lovelorn Australian No.1 was happy to take out his frustrations on David Goffin at the Rotterdam Open on Wednesday.
It wasn't quite the tennis equivalent of a Valentine's Day massacre, but de Minaur's 6-3 6-1 victory over the outplayed Belgian was comprehensive enough.
It was another illustration that the 24-year-old seems perfectly refreshed after his crushing five-set, last-16 defeat to Andrey Rublev at the Australian Open just when it appeared he was about to make it to his second grand slam quarter-final.
De Minaur's last-16 win in the ATP 500 hard-court event over the 33-year-old former top-10 player was even more convincing than his victory over Sebastian Korda in the previous round.
He cracked 12 winners and produced only eight unforced errors in his 82-minute victory, winning 69 per cent of his first-serve points and breaking the Belgian's serve six times.
It wasn't completely flawless - de Minaur did give up a couple of breaks in the opening set - but it set him neatly for a quarter-final rematch with his Melbourne Park conqueror Rublev, who overcame Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-5.
Having had the briefest taste of crashing into the world's top-10 in January, de Minaur - currently back down at 11 - is hoping for a good run this week to drag himself back among the elite.
New Australian Open champ Jannik Sinner was quickly back into his stride, beating Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3 6-3 to make the last-16.
Runner-up in Rotterdam last year, Sinner is hot favourite to go one better this time, although he says his Melbourne Park success has heaped new expectations on him.
"It's a little bit different (playing as a grand slam champion) and you have to be prepared for your opponents to know you better and know your weaknesses more," the 22-year-old said after winning for the 25th time in his last 27 matches, including the last 11 in a row.
"You have to be prepared to work hard and be ready."
The Italian will play French wildcard Gael Monfils, who defeated Canada's Denis Shapovalov 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5).
