Again within the fourth spherical for the fourth consecutive 12 months, Alex de Minaur faces Alex Michelsen for a spot in his first Australian Open quarterfinal.
Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 18 January 2025 | Sean A’Hearn
The data maintain coming for Alex de Minaur.
With Saturday’s 5-7 7-6(3) 6-3 6-3 third-round win over Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo, De Minaur reached the spherical of 16 at his sixth consecutive Grand Slam occasion.
He additionally grew to become the primary Australian man to submit 4 consecutive fourth-round appearances within the spherical of 16 on the AO since Phil Dent from 1979 to 1982.
It’s additionally a Melbourne Park first for the reason that match moved there in 1988.
6 – Alex de Minaur is the primary Australian participant to make the Males’s Singles Fourth Spherical in six consecutive Main occasions since Lleyton Hewitt between the US Open 2003 and the Australian Open 2005. Mannequin.#AO2025 | @AustralianOpen @atptour pic.twitter.com/Ihj6IyJdMZ
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) January 18, 2025
Notching his seventeenth win on the AO, De Minaur is now tied with Nick Kyrgios as having the third-most wins on the occasion by an area within the twenty first century.
Solely Lleyton Hewitt (31) and Bernard Tomic (18) are forward of him, though at 25 years outdated, De Minaur is scorching on their heels.
One other man very used to breaking data has been eyeing De Minaur’s achievements: Novak Djokovic.
The ten-time AO winner spoke extremely of the Aussie after his straight-sets win over Thomas Machac on Friday night time.
“I’ve watched him play a number of matches, and the extent is nice. He’s received the gang behind him. He’s taking part in very well,” the Serbian stated.
“I believe his serve grew to become a giant weapon. Possibly it wasn’t earlier than. It’s not a shock that he ended up prime 10 final season in his finest season but. So I believe we’re gonna see nice issues from Alex on this match.”
Saturday’s assembly with Cerundolo virtually didn’t go to plan, nonetheless.
In a see-sawing affair that included 5 breaks of serve, it was the Argentine who struck first, taking the primary set to a shocked Rod Laver Area.
Struggling on serve, with each gamers solely managing round 50 per cent of first serves in, the match moved in direction of an inevitable second-set tiebreak.
An excellent response volley off a internet wire whereas down 5-6 and 0-30 was maybe the turning level for De Minaur.
With the match hanging on a knife’s edge within the second-set tiebreak, De Minaur lifted his stage when it mattered most, upping the aggression and utterly flipping the momentum in his favour.
From there, it was principally one-way site visitors as De Minaur saved the stress excessive, regardless of Cerundolo’s valiant efforts.
Some extent at 3-3 within the fourth set summed up De Minaur’s tenacity. The eighth seed ran down a superb drop shot earlier than chasing one other ball again behind him, ripping a forehand and forcing an error from Cerundolo on the internet.
De Minaur then chased down a similarly-spectacular drop shot to carry serve at 5-3. Hitting a slice backhand down at his shoelaces previous a hapless Cerundolo, the Aussie celebrated by slapping his knees to a deafening roar.
“The legs are again!” de Minaur roared. “I imply, I’m going to have a few bruises on my legs, however it was value it.”
Acknowledging he wasn’t at his finest, De Minaur credited his trademark combating spirit and continuous enchancment for getting himself by the match.
“This model of myself … even when I don’t have my finest day, I’m going to compete until the tip, and I’m nonetheless going to be a really powerful out for anybody who’s in entrance of me,” he stated.
“I construct on that. We transfer on. Hopefully greater and higher issues approaching for the following spherical.”
De Minaur will now face rising American star Alex Michelsen, who has already upset eleventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and, on Saturday, nineteenth seed Karen Khachanov.
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The Sydneysider spoke to the problem of taking part in somebody who’s brimming with confidence.
“He’s going to go on the market with no concern. I’m going to do my finest to make it tough for him,” he stated of Michelsen.
Whereas he could not have been at his finest, “this model” of De Minaur nonetheless appears to be like like he can beat anybody.
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