IN-FORM Australian Alex de Minaur moved back inside the Top 10 on the ATP Tour rankings after successfully defending his crown at Acapulco on the weekend. Having won at the Mexican event 12 months ago, de Minaur stepped up to the plate again, winning the final against Casper Ruud in straight sets, 6-4 6-4.

The match lasted an hour and 57 minutes, with both players producing some scintallating rallies. But at the end of the day, de Minaur’s court coverage and consistency was far too good, with Ruud committing too many unforced errors in the match.

Having transformed his game over the past 12 months, de Minaur is equal second on the list of most hard court wins in the past 52 weeks with 39. He shares the spot with world number four Daniil Medvedev, while Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner is well ahead on 48.

In the first set alone, de Minaur hit 13 winners for only four unforced errors, while Ruud recorded four and five respectively. The Norwegian was not able to make a dint on the Australian’s serve, as de Minaur converted a break point himself while winning all bar five points on serve.

His 87 per cent first serve percentage was superb, and though that did plummetti the secod set – winning just 47 per cent off an equal clip – his second serve winning ability is just about second to none. Ruud did not do any better off his first serve (48 per cent), and with a higher serving efficiency, it meant it was far worse than it was for de Minaur.

Instead, the Australian just got it done off his second serve, winning 13 of 17 points, breakig twice himself whilst only been broken once. He hit a whopping 15 winners for five unforced errors – making it 28 and nine respectively for the match – while Ruud had four and four – which was eight and nine across the two sets – and ended in a 6-4 6-4 win to the defending champion.

“It’s been an amazing week,” de Minaur said post-match. “Probably a week I didn’t really expect if I’m honest. I came into Mexico not feeling my best and just kept on telling myself to keep giving myself chances. I think today I played my best match of the tournament, so I’m extremely happy with that.”

By taking out the title, de Minaur moved back into 10th spot in the world, and became the first player to defend the Acapulco title since the tournament changed to hard courts in 2014. He is also 11-2 at the event.

Ruud who had to suffer a second straight ATP Tour finals loss to an Australian – after going down to Jordan Thompson in Los Cabos – said he was in awe of the way de Minaur was playing.

“Fantastic playing all week, too good tonight, too good every night,” he said. “It seems like you are playing in Acapulco quite well and I guess you will come back next year. I hope not, but I’m sure you will!”