Preview: Wimbledon: Alex de Minaur vs. Adrian Mannarino - prediction, head-to-head, tournament so far

Former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Alex de Minaur faces veteran Adrian Mannarino in the second round on Thursday, aiming to continue his strong grass-court form.

The Australian No. 1 took down Roman Andres Burruchaga in straight sets without breaking a sweat, as did his next opponent, who dropped just seven games en route to a 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 success over countryman Titouan Droguet.

Match preview

De Minaur needed to win a close opening-set tiebreak 7-5, but the rest of the match saw the Aussie drop just one game from the 13 that followed.

That success was the fifth seed's sixth win on grass this year, having reached the Libema Open final and Queen's Club quarter-final.

While the Australian player has reached the last 16 in each of the last two years, those results followed first and second-round exits in three of his previous four appearances.

Having now seemed to find his feet on grass, the fifth seed will aim to improve his career 14-6 record at the Championships, where he held a 68% win rate ahead of this year's competition.

Having reached the third round of each of the past four Grand Slams and 10 of the previous 11 starting from the 2023 US Open, De Minaur enters Thursday as the undeniable favourite to get the better of his veteran opponent.

Mannarino's game can often be unorthodox, but the 38-year-old left-hander has rarely seemed to trouble his next opponent, owing to their lopsided head-to-head.

Winless in this matchup since 2022, the Frenchman endured a mixed grass-court preparation heading into his 15th main-draw appearance at the Championships, where he has reached the third round once in his previous six involvements.

Notably, though, that third-round run came 12 months ago, when the left-hander defeated Christopher O'Connell and Valentin Royer after coming through qualifying before losing in straight sets to Andrey Rublev.

Now, he must end a winless six-match streak against top-10 players at SW19 — including three losses to Roger Federer and two to Novak Djokovic — to match last year's result.

Although the precedent against De Minaur does little to inspire confidence, the former world No. 17 can draw encouragement from a commendable showing against Droguet in the opening round.

Tournament so far

Alex de Minaur:

First round: vs. Roman Andres Burruchaga 7-6[5] 6-1 6-0

Adrian Mannarino:

First round: vs. Titouan Droguet 6-2 6-4 6-1

Head To Head

Libema Open (2026) - Semi-final: De Minaur 6-4 6-0

Queen's Club (2023) - Quarter-final: De Minaur 6-4 4-6 6-4

Australian Open (2023) - Round of 64: De Minaur 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4 6-1

Atlanta Open (2022) - Quarter-final: de Minaur 4-6 6-3 6-0

Libema Open (2022) - Round of 16: Mannarino 6-2 6-3

Zhuhai Championships (2019) - Final: De Minaur 7-6(4) 6-4

De Minaur leads Mannarino 5-1 in their head-to-head record ahead of their seventh meeting on the ATP Tour.

While Thursday's encounter will be their first at a Major, both men have faced off three times on grass, with Mannarino's sole victory coming four years ago in Den Bosch, though the Aussie has since responded with two wins at Queen's and the Libema Open.

The latter encounter occurred in June en route to a final in Den Bosch, where De Minaur fell to Kamil Majchrzak.

We say: De Minaur to win in four sets

Mannarino can be backed to pose a few problems to 'The Demon' on Thursday, but the Aussie is likely to find solutions to anything the veteran throws at him.

Having never defeated a top-10 player at the Championships across six such matches, Mannarino's losing streak looks set to extend to seven as De Minaur surges into the third round at SW19 for the third consecutive year.