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Nick Kyrgios’ bizarre Novak drama spoof | 00:29
Alex de Minaur is dreaming big at the Australian Open. It might just be that he needs a stroke of luck.
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For while the mountain he has to scale has been insurmountable in the past, the Australian No.1 is clinging to hope that this might be the tournament he beats Jannik Sinner.
“Let’s go for bigger and better things. I am going to have to do something that I have not done before, but why not start here?” he said on Rod Laver Arena on Monday night.
On Monday night, De Minaur became the first Australian man to reach the quarterfinals of their home major since Nick Kyrgios a decade ago when too good for Alex Michelsen.
With a 6-0 7-6(5) 6-3 triumph over the emerging American, he has now reached the last eight at every grand slam, which is an achievement in itself given the quality of the tour.
The steps he has taken are incremental but also indisputable as he raises the bar.
As the No.8 seed said after his win over Michelsen, he gets a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, a little bit more confident each time he steps out on to the world’s biggest stages.
In a demonstration of this, every time the Australian has arrived at a grand slam over the past eight months, he has established a new mark in his career.
From the red clay of Paris to the lush green grass at Wimbledon and on to the hard courts in New York and Melbourne, the nation’s leading man has blazed a path to the quarterfinals.
It is staggering consistency and irrefutable proof of the accuracy of his standing among the top eight men in the world. It is also a tick of affirmation after he stalled for a period in his early 20s.
“For way too long I felt like I wasn’t performing in the bigger stages in the bigger tournaments,” de Minaur said on Monday night.
“Ultimately I knew that if I wanted to be a better player and if I wanted to be a top-10 player, these were the tournaments where I had to start performing a whole lot better.
“I have worked really hard on myself to give myself these opportunities and chances. It hasn’t been overnight. It’s been a long process.
“But I’m glad that I’m showing this consistency.”
In becoming the first Australian man since Nick Kyrgios to reach the quarterfinals of his home major, the 25-year-old has met the pre-tournament expectations surrounding him.
The Australian has dropped just one set to date in the tournament, though there have been periods where he has been challenged, as occurred once again on Monday night.
Most notable was the third round performance against Francisco Cerundolo where, for almost two sets, he presented as the coyote trying to keep pace with the road runner.
It was not a great performance, but it was meritable and another sign of his improvement. To defeat a seeded player when performing below-par is a credit, not a negative.
Against Michelsen on Rod Laver Arena, a concentration dip when serving for the second set threatened to bring undone a blazing start against the talented and improving American.
The crowd groaned when he double-faulted.
But de Minaur doubled down and, partially due to a stroke of luck when shanking a forehand winner crosscourt deep in the tiebreak, prevailed, before holding his nerve in the third set.
De Minaur had fallen to Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Andrey Rublev in the Rd of 16 at his three prior visits to Melbourne Park and was delighted to break the hoodoo.
“I’m super happy to finally breakthrough, finally get that milestone moment here at the Australian Open,” he said.
“It feels like the slam that kept on slipping away where I felt like I had a little bit of a barrier at the fourth round. It feels very good to finally break through another milestone in my career.”
Now to Sinner and the stroke of luck he needs to join Pat Cash, Mark Woodforde, Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt as semifinalists at home since the 1988 shift to Melbourne Park.
Make no mistake. It is a massive one, despite the despairing state the defending champion presented as during a four-set triumph over Holger Rune in stifling conditions on Monday.
Sinner hit the wall against Rune during an extremely physical encounter that included a 37-shot rally that sits among the finest played at Melbourne Park. Yet he still prevailed.
The defending champion, who is the world No.1 and pre-eminent hard court player in the world, has more than 48 hours to recover physically from the taxing clash with Rune.
He has also won all prior nine clashes against de Minaur, many in convincing fashion.
From the decider of the ATP Tour Next Gen Finals in Italy in 2019 to the ATP Tour Finals last November, from Davis Cup Finals heartbreaks to an Aussie Open walloping, de Minaur has been dominated by the dual-grand slam champion.
De Minaur has beaten Novak Djokovic. He has tested Carlos Alcaraz. But it is more than four years since de Minaur secured the solitary set from the 21 he and Sinner have played.
As Pat Rafter noted a couple of days ago, it is a “bad matchup” for the Australian star. But borrowing from a line Taylor Fritz delivered after he fell to the Italian in the US Open final last September, de Minaur pointed out that Sinner is a bad matchup for every rival.
“Jannik is a hell of a player, right?” he said.
“And I think Taylor said it quite well when he got asked upon whether it’s a bad matchup for him, and he said it straight: ‘Look, it’s not really about being a bad matchup. It’s that he’s a pretty good player, right?’ So he’s a bad matchup for a lot of players out there on tour.
“The great thing about tennis is that once you step out on the court, you both start at 0-0. It’s a whole new day, a whole new match, and anything can happen. Sport is unpredictable.
“That’s exactly the mindset I’m going to have going into that match. I’m looking forward to it. (These are) the matches I want to be playing. Ultimately, if there is anything, it’s going to be my first match this whole tournament where I’m the underdog and don’t have all the pressure and expectation of, you know, having to win. So it’s quite exciting, and I’m looking forward to that.”
A winner of nine ATP Tour titles, De Minaur is due a change of fortune in quarterfinals, for he was bereft last year.
Alexander Zverev defeated him in three sets at Roland Garros last year and was only beaten a whisker in the final by Alcaraz.
The Australian was in the form of his life and pitted against a limping Djokovic at Wimbledon, only to injure himself on the second last point against Arthur Fils in the Rd of 16 match.
At the US Open, the Australian somehow reached the last eight despite being hindered in his movement and was clearly sore against Jack Draper.
Sinner shapes as the toughest of the lot. And a predicted weather change that brings a dip in temperature will probably hurt de Minaur more than the Italian powerhouse. But that is the beauty of sport. One never knows.
THE ‘BRUTAL’ REBUILD THAT GOT DEMON HERE
In a sense, it’s remarkable that 2024 was the best year of Alex de Minaur’s career, given what he was going through.
For months, a rare hip complaint kept the Aussie below his best, yet he still earned three slam quarter-final berths – a streak he took to four on Monday night.
The most troubling part of the injury was the way it sapped his greatest trait, his mobility, but the mental anguish of the problem cannot be overstated.
Withdrawing before a Wimbledon quarter-final against Novak Djokovic that he very well could have won, given the Serb’s own issues at the time, has clearly not just been lingering in the back of de Minaur’s mind – but at times, right at the front.
Asked about his recovery, de Minaur conceded on Monday night: “It was brutal, both physically and mentally.
“At some point I would love to, you know, open up fully about everything that I went through in that period, because it was a lot, but ultimately the people in my team, in my surroundings, they know how tough it was.
“But to give you a little bit of an insight, it was just brutal from not knowing what my injury was, what my problem was, to not knowing the timeline to coming back to competing with so much pain and inhibiting my movement for so long, to mentally having to push myself every time I stepped out on court, knowing that my biggest asset, which is my movement, is not there.
“So no matter what, if I’m gonna win that match on that day, I was going to have to be so strong mentally, knowing that, you know, I had my limitations and I still had to compete from the very first point till the last.
“Yeah, just waiting, more than anything, waiting days and weeks for there to be no pain on my movement. It was a bloody long process, but I’m glad we’re here right now, yeah, and we’ve passed the page hopefully.”
THE BLOCKBUSTER THAT CAME EARLY
Holger Rune is not sure where he will be about 9pm on Tuesday night when arguably the most anticipated Australian Open quarter-final in the tournament’s history begins.
But should the Dane be within range of a television, he said he will join the millions around the globe certain to tune into a battle of the titans in Djokovic-Alcaraz VIII.
Aside from a berth in an Australian Open semifinal, at stake could be a slice of history for both men by the end of the weekend, particularly given Jannik Sinner’s struggles.
“It’s definitely a very exciting match. (They are) probably two of the most exciting players on tour playing each other,” Rune said.
“Obviously I think it’s going to be an amazing match. Carlos (is) eager to win here. Novak (is) very, very eager. You have seen his matches here. It’s going to be a big battle.”
This is a true heavyweight battle, the Australian edition of a box office smash that has thrilled capacity audiences on Philippe-Chatrier Court in Paris and Centre Court at Wimbledon.
It is a rivalry that only plays out on the world’s greatest courts. If not at Wimbledon or in Paris, they have met in Madrid, Cincinnati, the World Tour Finals and the Olympics playoff.
Now it is Melbourne’s turn and it is fitting their eighth meeting in a head-to-head Djokovic leads 4-3 will unfold on the arena named after Rod Laver, a fellow icon of the sport.
Djokovic is the most successful man of all time and is aiming for a 25th grand slam title. Already alone in men’s tennis, it would separate him from any of the GOAT debates.
Alcaraz, meanwhile, is vying to become the youngest man ever to have claimed all four major titles. Younger than Djokovic. Younger than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal too.
He won the US Open as a teenager. He defeated the legend Djokovic at Wimbledon in one of the great finals of all time and then backed up to thrash him a year later. And he has won Roland Garros as well. Remarkably, even if he does not succeed in this Australian Open, Alcaraz has another year up his sleeve to beat the record set by Don Budge in 1938.
Djokovic, meanwhile, won their last meeting. It is his most cherished.
A gold medal for Serbia. Well before the Tony Jones saga, the tennis world was well aware that when it comes to his country, Djokovic will go above and beyond to succeed for Serbia.
To do so after the heartbreaks of repeated Olympics, and to manage it on clay in Paris against a talent as brilliant as Alcaraz just months after injuring a knee two months prior.
They are among the most sought after athletes in the world and both know how to deliver value to their sponsors, their fans, their talent and also the tournaments, the extenuating circumstances of a couple of nights ago with Djokovic aside.
Tennis website The First Serve published an article on Alcaraz this week quoting America’s last major champion Andy Roddick, who met with the Spaniard in Charlotte last month.
The 21-year-old was in town for an exhibition with Frances Tiafoe. He was paid big bucks but he delivered above expectations in the manner Federer, for example, used to do.
Instead the world’s premier soccer players and F1 drivers are seeking him out for a meeting, so too the A-List actors who attend the US Open, for example. His renown is stratospheric.
“I think he’s fully aware of what he is now. He’s one of the biggest global sports stars we have,” Roddick said.
“He’s the celebrity in the room amongst sports celebrities in most rooms that he’s in now. I think people are thirsty to see him, thirsty to watch him.
“Expectations couldn’t be more outsized. He’s one of the biggest global superstars, not (just) in tennis, but in anything. Everyone wants to be around him.”
And as for Djokovic? Well, his reputation goes without saying. The GOAT has done it all. It shapes as another immense sporting moment in Melbourne.
SO WHO WINS?
As to the match itself, Djokovic is adamant about one thing.
If Alcaraz is great to watch from the stands, and that is indisputable given the vast array of weapons he possesses in his arsenal, it is less pleasurable sharing the court with him.
“He’s (a) very dynamic, explosive player (who is) incredibly talented. (He is a) charismatic player. Great to watch ((but) not that great to play against,” Djokovic said.
The Spaniard was equally complimentary about having facing the 10-time AO champion in a quarterfinal.
“This is not the right player to play in a quarterfinal, I guess,” he said.
For all of their meetings, only one has occurred outdoors on hard court and it was arguably the best match played in 2023. Even though it was only three sets, it was truly an epic.
A month after their magnificent Wimbledon final, Djokovic and Alcaraz met again in the final of the Cincinnati Masters 5-7 7-6 (7) 7-6 (4), with the decider lasting 3hr 49min.
There is little the duo do not know about each other. What is notable is that both men, aside from their brilliance at the baseline, do appear to be coming forward more frequently here.
If Tuesday night’s encounter proves anywhere near as good as their Cincinnati final, or the decider in Wimbledon in 2023, or the Paris Olympics final, it shapes as an all-time classic.
“If I think about everything he has done in tennis, I couldn’t play,” Alcaraz said.
“(He has) 24 grand slams, the most weeks at No.1. Everything. He almost broke every record in tennis. I’m trying not to think about that when I’m in the match. I’m just trying … to beat him.
“I know my weapons. I know that I’m able to play good tennis against him, I’m able to beat him. That’s all I’m thinking when I’m facing him.
“What weakness (does) Novak have? Just few or none. I know that I have to do on clay, on hard court, on grass. This is going to be the first time that I am playing against him in a grand slam on hard court, so let’s see. I’m just excited.”
Djokovic, meanwhile, is full of admiration for a rival who has outshone him on massive stages.
“I’m expecting a big battle, as is the case in most of our matches where we faced each other,” he said.
“(He) reminds me of my matchups versus Nadal in terms of the intensity and the energy on the court. I look forward to it. I think when the draw was out, a lot of the people were looking forward to (our) potential matchup in quarterfinals, Alcaraz versus me. So here we are.
“I think we both are hitting the ball pretty well this tournament. I like the way I’m playing and the way I’m feeling (in the) last couple matches. I’m excited about that challenge.”
MORE GOOD NEWS FOR DOMINANT WORLD NO.2
Everything is coming up Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open as the Polish champion looks to put a testing six months behind her.
It was a double delight for the Queen of Clay on Monday after blitzing lucky loser Eva Lys 6-0 6-1 in a one-sided walloping that lasted just 59 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.
As Swiatek was wrapping up her press duties, confirmation from the World-Anti Doping Authority came that it will not appeal the one-month suspension handed her for a breach.
An excerpt of a brief release from WADA said the body, which has appealed a finding related to world No.1 Jannik Sinner, had no reason to believe it could win at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“Further, WADA sought advice from external legal counsel, who considered that the athlete’s contamination explanation was well evidenced, that the ITIA decision was compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, and that there was no reasonable basis to appeal it to the CAS,” the statement read.
When the news was relayed to her in a press conference after her victory over Lys, the 23-year-old said it was a satisfying result after a stressful period, but that she had not noticed any negativity towards her at the Australian Open.
“For sure, I’m just satisfied that I can get a closure … and I can just move on and finish this whole process because I just want to play tennis and focus on the tournament,” she said.
“I haven’t noticed any difference. I think anybody who … read the documents and knows details about the case, they understand. In the locker room, (it) has been also pretty nice. The girls are understanding. I kind of answered all of this at the beginning of the tournament.
“I just want to put this behind me, because I have already been on tour for quite a few weeks and it’s all been good. I don’t expect any changes. I’m happy that people understand.”
The four-time Roland Garros champion, meanwhile, has dropped just 12 games in four rounds to date and is maximising her dollar for effort on court earnings.
Swiatek, who will play No.8 seed Emma Navarro for the chance to make the semi-finals at Melbourne Park for the second time after a run to the last four in 2022, is averaging $148,000 an hour for her time on court to date at Melbourne Park in this Australian Open.
A US Open semifinalist in September, Navarro has emerged as an elite player over the past 12 months and progressed to the last eight with a tough 6-4 5-7 7-5 win over Daria Kasatkina.
Their only meeting came in a low-tier tournament in Charleson, Navarro’s home town, seven years ago but Swiatek said little could be read into her victory there.
“I have to treat Emma as a player that I never played, because she, for sure, has made, like – we both made huge progress since that time that we faced each other,” she said.
“Her journey has been pretty nice and amazing. I saw the US Open matches. She played really well and (she is) fighting for every point and everything.
“It’s a bit different when you don’t know the opponent that well and you haven’t faced them a lot of times. But I don’t mind. I’ll just prepare and I’ll be ready.”
