It was a dominant performance all round from the Aussie, who didn't give his 51st ranked American opponent a single look at a break point.<\/p>\n
Sandgren, who made the quarter-finals of the Australian Open last year, was one of the many stars to endure a 14-day period of hard lockdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n He tested positive to COVID-19 on a flight to Australia, with his plane initially turning around on the tarmac when news of his positive result came through. It was eventually cleared for take-off with the American on board. <\/p>\n Sandgren, who has never been shy of giving a strong opinion, was one of the more vocal competitors to voice displeasure at the Victorian government and Tennis Australia's biosecurity protocols.<\/p>\n When asked after the match if he had endured a "brutal" month of preparation, Sandgren denied that was the case, although he did admit his lead-up wasn't "ideal".<\/p>\n "No, definitely not one of the most brutal [preparations]," Sandgren said.<\/p>\n "Not ideal for training for a tennis tournament such as this, certainly not for a three-out-of-five-set match against Alex, who has not had similar training circumstances, but as far as difficult months or brutal, not brutal at all, no.<\/p>\n "To work out and play video games in my room, it's okay."<\/p>\n Responding to his opponent's comments, de Minaur conceded Sandgren did go through an "unfortunate" set of circumstances with the two-week period of hard quarantine.<\/p>\n "Look, he got unfortunate with the flight he was on coming into Australia," de Minaur responded.<\/p>\n "He had to do the hard quarantine.<\/p>\n "But look, I had a match to play. Happy I did everything on my end as well as I could, and that was the main thing."<\/p>\n De Minaur will face 35-year-old Argentine Pablo Cuevas on Thursday in the second round of the tournament.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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