The roads that Alex de Minaur and Cameron Norrie have traveled during their ATP careers were put on full display in the second round of the 2026 Monte Carlo masters. Both struggled against their own deficiencies, yet both refused to give up.
This is how they have spent their careers. Neither has the power to consistently win Masters events or Grand Slams, and both are threats to make deep runs in all of those tournaments. Norrie has battled injuries more than the Australian, and de Minaur moves as well as anyone in tennis, but has less power than Norrie.
The former is one reason the Aussie has hung around the top 10 more than the Brit. Not that any of that mattered much in Monte Carlo.
Alex de Mianur defeats Cam Norrie in the second round of the 2026 Monte Carlo Masters
In the first set, each got a break and finished in a tie-break that was also tight. The Aussie jumped out to a lead, winning the tie-break 7-5. He was just a tick better than the Brit, and many likely presumed that before the match even began. De Minaur winning an otherwise tight match in two sets wouldn't have shocked anybody.
What might have been is Norrie bouncing back so convincingly in the second set. He was helped by the fifth-seed beating himself somewhat. De Minaur only landed 48 percent of his first serves, which partly caused him to face four break points, and had five winners but 14 unforced errors.
Norrie got three breaks and took set two 6-2. Still, one wouldn't expect Alex de Minaur to keep performing poorly, and he made one key adjustment after being broken in the first game of the third and final set.
He started hitting his first serve with less speed. He wasn't trying to go for aces anyway, of course, but at least landing the ball in kept him in the point, and he counted on his speed to steal some. The new plan worked perfectly as he raced back to take the lead 3-1 after breaking Cameron Norrie twice. By this point, the Brit has started struggling to land his own first serve.
For a short time, de Minaur tried to go back to a harder serve, but it wasn't helping. After going back to hitting the ball with less force, he was able to hold a couple more times to get to 5-2 on Norrie's serve. The Brit couldn't hold, though, and de Minaur took set three 6-2.
In the third round, Alex de Minaur will take on either Flavio Cobolli or the excellently-named Alexander Blockx. Blockx is 20 years old with no history on clay on the ATP tour. Cobolli's best surface, statistically, is clay, and he has two titles on the surface.