Alex de Minaur may have beaten a rusty King of Clay when he defeated Rafael Nadal earlier this claycourt swing, but it has been a different matter against one of Nadal's potential successors in Rome.
Stefanos Tsitsipas is among a cluster of princes vying to assume Nadal's claycourt crown (once the all-surface master Novak Djokovic finally makes way), and he showed why in a brutal thrashing of the Australian No.1.
Tsitsipas beat de Minaur 6-1 6-2 in a minute under an hour to reach the Italian Open quarter-finals, and the vanquished Aussie barely knew what hit him.
