Tennis

Alex de Minaur has won the biggest singles title of his career on the weekend, claiming the Mexican Open in Acapulco.

To lift his first ATP 500 trophy he had to come back from losing the opening set to world no.23 Tommy Paul (USA), just as he did in the semi-finals against world no.10 Hulger Rune (DEN).

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Alex pulled out the final 3-6 6-4 6-1, with the defining moment coming in the opening game of the third set. Paul generated five break point opportunities and Alex saved them all, which was the beginning of the Aussie closing the match by winning five-straight games.

The victory was all the more impressive with Alex backing up from the semi-final clash with Rune that nearly lasted three hours and finished beyond 2am local time.

A boost in ranking points sees Alex rise to world no.18 in the men’s singles, three spots away from his career-high mark.

Snowboard - Halfpipe

Valentino Guseli defied an injury plagued week to take out the silver medal in the halfpipe world championships final.

It’s the first world championships medal of the 17-year-old’s career, using his third and final run of the event to post his best score.

The boy from the NSW South Coast fell on his first run, improved to score 83.25 points on his second run and then a well executed cab-triple-1440 helped him to a score of 93 points, narrowly missing victory by just half a point to fellow teenager Chaeun Lee of Korea.

“I am pretty stoked, considering that a week ago I was crawling around my apartment not sure if I was going to be able to do anything here, I am really happy,” Val said.

“The cab-triple-1440 was a trick I learnt in November, and I have been struggling a little bit with it all year, I perfected it a week before coming here training in Laax, Switzerland, landing five in a row and felt really comfortable with them.

“All of my success this year has been a process … it’s been a process figuring everything out and happy to be finally trying to match it with the best in the world.

“I grew up watching Scotty James, and now to be almost at a level where kids look up to me the same is pretty amazing.

“If you want it enough you will make it happen, it’s all heart, put your heart into it and you will get it.”

Two-time Olympic medallist Scotty James just missed recording his fifth career world championship medal, finishing in fifth place with his best score of 86.50 points coming in his second run.

Snowboard - Big Air

Tess Coady finished the 2023 Snowboard and Freestyle Skiing World Championships for Australia on the podium, taking home a bronze medal in the big air snowboard event in Bakuriani, Georgia.

The 2022 Olympic slopestyle bronze medallist made a great start in the three-run final by stomping a massive backside-1080-indi grab. Tess backed it up with a clean frontside-900-tail grab jump in run two, scoring 68.50 points.

In her third and final jump the 22-year-old from Melbourne attempted a frontside-1080-tail grab jump in an attempt to win the world championships, but was unable to land it and the jump did not count towards her final score as only the two highest scoring jumps count for each athlete.

“I am super stoked, I had pretty low expectations coming into today, with bad weather in the forecast, I was just hoping the conditions would be ok, but when we got here the landing was super soft and no wind, so it was sick,” Tess said.

“I definitely wanted to do the backside 1080 today. I did it in the slopestyle and it felt really good on that jump, I just had to make sure I got the speed right.”

“It's always hard to rally for big air after competing in slopestyle earlier in the week, I feel like slopestyle is my discipline, so I kind of put my heart and soul into that, so to come out with a medal in big air is really good.”

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Recording the victory was Anna Gasser from Austria with a total score of 162.50, with Japanese rider Miyabi Onitsuka in second with 161.25.

Tess now has a world championship medal in two disciplines, adding to her slopestyle bronze from Aspen in 2021. She was also amazed by the record-breaking display by the entire Aussie team at the world championships.

“The performance of the Australian team has been insane, you see your fellow Aussies doing well and it lifts you and you want to carry that momentum.”

Aussie medallists at the 2023 Snowboard and Freestyle Skiing World Champs:

Danielle Scott - Aerials – silver
Matt Graham - Moguls – silver
Matt Graham - Dual Moguls – bronze
Josie Baff - Snowboard Cross – silver
Valentino Guseli - Halfpipe – silver
Tess Coady - Big Air - bronze

Freestyle Skiing - Aerials

Danielle Scott and Laura Peel took home World Cup gold and silver medals respectively overnight in Engadin, Switzerland, the second time the pair have taken the first two spots on the podium in the same event.

Weekend Wrap: de Minaur wins seventh and biggest career singles title, impressive snow sports world champs display and more