Alexander Blockx withdrew from Roland Garros on Monday with a right ankle sprain, handing Alex de Minaur a walkover into the last-32 of the French Open. The scheduled second-round match on Court Suzanne Lenglen never got the chance to begin.
Blockx turned his ankle during a training session while practising on Monday, ending his tournament just one day before he was due to face de Minaur. The 21-year-old Belgian had arrived in Paris with momentum after a breakthrough run in Madrid last month, where he reached the semi-final after beating Casper Ruud and Felix Auger-Aliassime and climbed to No.37 in the world.
The withdrawal also altered the path for de Minaur, who had been set to play Blockx on Tuesday at one of Roland Garros’ bigger show courts. Instead, the Australian moves straight through to Thursday’s third round, where he will face either Jakub Mensik, the No.26 seed, or Mariano Navone, who was a finalist in Geneva last week.
De Minaur had already seen enough of Blockx to know why the match was shaping up as a test. He beat him 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) in Monte Carlo last month and later described the Belgian as one of the young talents in the game, saying he had been playing some really good tennis and had backed it up week after week. He also pointed to the elements that make Blockx awkward to face, calling him a big kid with a big serve and big forehand who can be dangerous if given rhythm.
That context mattered because de Minaur was trying to avoid the round in which he suffered a shock defeat to Alexander Bublik last year. Instead, the walkover gives him a rest before what could be a demanding third-round match, and it also leaves Blockx with the frustration of leaving a major after one training-session injury erased the chance to extend a fast-rising season. De Minaur said the heat would make the next stage physical and added that his goal would be to extend the rallies and turn it into a battle.
For Blockx, the timing is harsh. For de Minaur, it is a clean passage into the second week’s early pressure without having to spend the energy he would have needed against an opponent he already knew could make him work for every point.
