Alex de Minaur began his Washington Open title defence with a win, but he was pushed the distance by Stefanos Tsitsipas in order to reach the second round. 

De Minaur needed exactly two hours to clinch a 6-4 3-6 6-3 win over two-time semi-finalist Tsitsipas, with compatriot Cruz Hewitt his next opponent. 

The top seed did, however, struggle to find his groove in the opening exchanges and was broken by Tsitsipas in the sixth game, but that seemed to kick De Minaur into gear. 

He reeled off the final four games to take the lead, but Tsitsipas responded brilliantly, with a solitary break in the fourth game all he needed to take the match the distance. 

The pair traded blows at the start of the decider, but the match went in De Minaur's favour when he got the better of Tsitsipas' serve in the fourth game at the third time of asking. 

From there, De Minaur did not face a break point as he closed out the encounter with the ball in hand, with Tsitsipas only able to return his serve into the net. 

"Coming in, I really didn't have too many expectations. It was a quick turnaround," De Minaur said. "I'm glad that I was able to find a way through a tricky match.

"It wasn't pretty tennis, but I did just enough to get over the line, and I'm happy with that. Stefanos has been an incredible player for a very long time."

Made to work for the opening win

Title defense for @alexdeminaur kicks off with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Tsitsipas in DC!#MubadalaDCOpen pic.twitter.com/1XFtMiAL8w

— Mubadala DC Open (@mubadaladcopen) July 29, 2026

Fourth seed Lorenzo Musetti, meanwhile, booked his spot in the quarter-finals of the competition, but he also needed three sets to find a way past Aleksandar Vukic. 

Musetti emerged a 6-3 5-7 6-3 victor in two hours and 16 minutes, with Spain's Rafael Jodar or Japanese wild card Kei Nishikori up next for a spot in the quarter-finals. 

Taylor Fritz, however, had no such trouble. He beat Kamil Majchrzak 6-3 6-4 and will take on either compatriot Alex Michelsen or Adrian Mannarino next. 

De Minaur earns rare win over Tsitsipas but stern Hewitt test awaits

Ahead of his Washington title defence, De Minaur may have been fearing the worst when he was drawn against Tsitsipas, who he has struggled against during his career. 

Coming into this match, Tsitsipas had a record of 12-1 over De Minaur, including winning each of their last two meetings, but the Australian was able to get the job done here. 

He has now won a Tour-leading 60 ATP 500 matches since the start of the 2023 season, but his next opponent will be hoping to cause an upset. 

After his first-round victory over Marcos Giron, Hewitt (17y 228d) became the youngest Australian to win an ATP main draw match outside of Australia since his father Lleyton (17y 174d) in New Haven in 1998.