How Alex de Minaur did what men's clay tennis GOAT Rafael Nadal could not: A double bagel

New York Times

11-04-2025

Across 20 years of dominance on clay, Rafael Nadal never once served an opponent a double bagel — a 6-0, 6-0 defeat. The contemporary queen of clay, Iga Świątek, has done it four times and counting on the WTA Tour.
In the first clay-court season without Nadal since 2003, and across 44 minutes in Monaco, Alex de Minaur did what he could not and boiled and baked Grigor Dimitrov to reach the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters. In doing so, de Minaur became the first player to win a quarterfinal, semifinal, or final 6-0, 6-0 in ATP Masters 1,000 history, a format which began in 1990 and is named for the number of ranking points awarded to the winner.
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A double bagel is inherently humiliating, but this one was particularly so. Dimitrov did not earn a single game point, at best reaching 30-30 on his own serve. None of the 12 games went to deuce; Dimitrov won just five points in the entirety of the second set and 15 overall to de Minaur's 48, the fewest required to win a three-set tennis match.
Despite the one-sided result, de Minaur didn't blast Dimitrov off the court. He hit eight winners, with Dimitrov making 23 unforced errors, 13 of them on his forehand side, to just one winner. He did keep the Bulgarian on his heels, putting 86 percent of his rally balls beyond the service line compared to 78 for Dimitrov, and finding greater depth — beyond the halfway point between the service line and the baseline — with 41 percent of his shots compared to 29 for Dimitrov, according to data from TennisViz. The Australian made just eight unforced errors.
It is de Minaur's first double bagel of his professional career. 'As the years have gone by, I've grown to understand the things I can do well on this surface to be a tough opponent,' he said on court after the win.
'Clay-court tennis is not about hitting hard, powerful shots. It's about opening up the court, using variety, using angles, using height and different speeds. Understanding the balance between being too aggressive and too passive,' he said.
De Minaur will face either defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas or Italy's Lorenzo Musetti in the semifinals. Earlier in the day, Carlos Alcaraz edged past Arthur Fils 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in their first meeting, coming back from 5-5, 0-40 and 1-3 in the second and third sets respectively. Alcaraz, who is seeking his first ATP 1,000 title since last year's BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif., will play Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the last four, after he beat de Minaur's compatriot, Alexei Popyrin, 6-3, 6-2.
For the record, Nadal did twice manage to win two sets 6-0 in a five-set match, both at the French Open, where he won 14 titles in all.