Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Early in the first set of this match, the crowd began to erupt as Alex de Minaur chased a ball to the net post and angled a winning backhand pass across Jannik Sinner, only for the Italian to round on it and turn it into a winner of his own. The roar died in all throats. It never did get to full pitch as Sinner won 6-3, 6-2, 6-1.
The rest of this lopsided quarter-final was characterised by choked-off applause for winners that weren’t, openings that closed, a dream that died, and eventually by mute silence.
Jannik Sinner of Italy beat Alex de Minaur.Credit: AP
Sinner, in white shorts, socks and shoes, pale yellow shirt and cap and translucent legs, looked like a ghost and must have seemed like one to de Minaur. Wherever he went, Sinner was there. There were 200km/h serves that came back to unmanageable spots. Rasping cross-court forehands to the baseline were returned with interest. When De Minaur played a good shot, Sinner played a better one, and three more.
In musically storied northern Italy, Sinner probably has seen metronomes less constant. Combative as he is, de Minaur had no tick for this tock. The outcome was a rout.
Really, it ought not to have surprised. De Minaur wasn’t. “He’s probably my worst match-up in these conditions,” he said. “He was bloody good tonight.”
This was the 10th completed match between this pair, and Sinner has won them all so comfortably that de Minaur has won only one tie-break set in that span. But this was a new year, a new slate and a new, improved de Minaur. He convinced himself and us. He was No.8 in the world, after all.
But Sinner had improved, too. This time last year, he declared himself to be a hunter, out to see what he could catch. First into his bag was this tournament, and he would add another major, another Davis Cup title and the No.1 mantle. He won 73 of his 79 matches last year.
Now he’s the hunted, but you would hardly know it. Or maybe you would. He’s lean and mean. His face gives nothing away and he makes no noise of his own, but is alert to every threat and sensitised to every opportunity. When it comes, he pounces.
After his previous match against Holger Rune, Sinner had alluded to an unspecified illness that had disrupted his preparation. In the prelude to this one, a rumour swept Melbourne Park that he had pneumonia. It was a misprint. He had pneumatics.
One detail speaks for all this night. In the past year, de Minaur has established himself as one of the best return-of-serves in the game. This night, he failed to win even a point against Sinner’s serve for four consecutive games at the heart of the match. In all, he won 10 points on Sinner’s serve, total.
De Minaur did try things. Early in the second set, he began to stand so far back to return serve that Sinner must have thought of emailing it to him. What did Sinner do? Beat him with a feathery drop shot, that’s what. Forced to push, de Minaur did, and like so many who push, he toppled.
The motif of de Minaur’s career has been to hang in there, work hard and improve by millimetres. It’s brought him this far, but he must wonder if the tortoise route is really the way to catch hares. He’s only 25, but Sinner is 23 and Carlos Alcaraz 21.
The occasion was subdued and anti-climactic. Sinner is emotionless on court, and de Minaur is not one to manufacture disruptions. He gave the crowd nothing to latch onto, and Sinner gave them nothing to offend them, and so the night passed mildly away. One or two feeble “oi, oi, oi” chants rang out dully. Is there any lamer chant in world sport? Actually, there is. It’s “let’s go {name player}, let’s go.”
The match was over so quickly that Nine’s Jim Courier admitted on court he was under instructions to draw out the post-match interview. Sinner was having none of it. He was polite and gracious. He was grateful to the crowd for being fair. He was glad to be young and able to recover quickly from ill health.
But he did not think of himself as an entertainer, he said in a voice as flat as his backhand pass. For the second time on the night, he wrapped it up in a hurry.
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