Source : ABC NEWS
It was a night that promised to be so different for Alex de Minaur and thousands of Australian fans packed into Rod Laver Arena.
The 25-year-old came into his clash with world number one and defending Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner riding an incredible high.
De Minaur had already notched a career-best by reaching the quarterfinal stage of the Australian Open. He had noticeably beefed up over the off-season, adding power to allow him to hang with the best of the best on the men’s tour.
The cherry on top of all of that was Sinner’s condition in the lead-up, with the Italian reportedly fighting a bout of pneumonia that forced him to move a pre-match practice session to the indoor courts and away from prying eyes.
Surely this was going to be the match where de Minaur would force his way into the truly elite tier of the men’s tour.
What ensued was a beatdown that has the potential to alter the course of de Minaur’s career, either for better or for worse. It was a loss so devastating that de Minaur admitted he felt like he’d been “slapped across the face” during the post-mortem.
If you need more of an idea of how this match went, John McEnroe described it as “a heavyweight fighting a middleweight” on Nine’s coverage.
The good news for de Minaur is this – being a perennial quarterfinalist at a grand slam tournament isn’t a bad result at all.
You have to go back to Wimbledon 2023 to find a grand slam tournament where de Minaur did not reach the fourth round of a grand slam.
Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer’s otherworldly level of excellence for two decades distorted the perception of just how difficult it is to advance to the second week of grand slam tournaments for most players.
The early elimination of two-time Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev this year is proof enough that deep tournament runs aren’t a given for anyone on the tour, even the best of the best.
Alex de Minaur does not want to believe he has reached his ceiling. (Getty Images: Clive Brunskill)
De Minaur doesn’t have to look abroad to find inspiration on how quickly a quarterfinal appearance can become a potential grand slam final. In 2022, Nick Kyrgios capitalised on both his best tennis and then some luck in the draw to reach the final at Wimbledon after Rafael Nadal was unable to take the court for their semifinal.
Hang around the mark long enough while staying healthy and you’re only an injury and a couple of surprise results elsewhere away from potentially reaching a semifinal or a final.
De Minaur seems like he’s been in our lives forever, so it is hard to believe that he is still only 25 years of age, and in the next five years he will come into his absolute prime.
Roger Federer won exactly half of his 20 grand slam titles between the ages of 25 and 30. De Minaur will almost certainly not win at that level, but he’s highly likely to put together some of his deepest tournament runs over the remainder of this decade.
“It’s pretty tough right now for me to sit here after this defeat and tell you that I believe I can go all the way, but saying that, I do think that there are opportunities out there,” a despondent de Minaur told reporters after being dispatched by Sinner.
“If I’m in a different side of the draw, different little section, then who knows?
“I genuinely think I’m going to give myself opportunities, and I don’t think my peak is making quarterfinals in a slam.
“I see other players that have made it further, have made semis, have made finals, and I do believe that I can be amongst them, right? If they have been able to accomplish that, then why not me?”
Sinner may have an unbeaten record against de Minaur, including wins in two tournament finals, but the Italian doesn’t believe he is on an entirely different stratosphere to the Aussie.
“In the past matches (with de Minaur) there were some close ones,” he said.
“If we take the Rotterdam final, for example, last year, this can go a little bit both ways.
“In the other way I always have to expect something different from him. You know, every time we play, you never know what’s coming.
“So I have to be very prepared for every single thing. Today I was prepared.”
Throughout his 10-year career as a pro, de Minaur has made incremental improvements in his game year on year. Here is the problem and the very harsh reality that de Minaur and his camp must grapple with – those incremental improvements may not be enough to ever breach the Sinner-Alcaraz-Djokovic wall.
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For all of de Minaur’s positive talk and never-say-die attitude, there will be a part of his mind that will wonder whether he’ll ever be able to topple that trio and others in the same bracket in a best-of-five match. Overcoming that mental gremlin will be central to de Minaur’s quest of eventually beating the giants on the men’s tour.
The beauty of de Minaur’s game is he very rarely beats himself. He makes light work of lower-ranked opponents by not giving them free points and getting to every single ball.
However, when faced against the world’s best, the roles get reversed and suddenly it is de Minaur’s opponents that force error after error out of him.
“What Jannik has in these conditions is he’s got very little unforced errors, and his ball speed is very high,” de Minaur said.
“When you are trying to go toe-to-toe with him, naturally you’re lifting your ball speed. So all of a sudden you’re pressing more than you’re used to, which obviously creates a couple more unforced errors unless you’re feeling the ball and feeling great.
Sinner made it 10 straight wins over de Minaur by beating the Australian in the quarterfinal. (Getty Images: Shi Tang)
“He’s got amazing movement that he can absorb and defend, and he’s so good out of the corners as well.
“So sometimes he can change defence into offence so quickly. If you decide to be passive with him, he’s got the firepower to hit those winners.”
Following the loss to Sinner, the focus was on de Minaur’s 0-10 record against Italian. What makes for even uglier reading is his 18-51 mark against players ranked in the top 10 at the time of facing them.
De Minaur owns just two career wins over top 10-ranked players at grand slam tournaments – a win over a number seven-ranked Kei Nishikori at the 2019 US Open, and a win over a number five-ranked Medvedev at Roland-Garros last year.
De Minaur owns a 2-12 record against top 10 opponents at grand slams. Of the 12 losses, he has been wiped off the court in straight sets in eight of them.
“I know that whole crowd has got my back. They want me to go out there, make it competitive, try to make it into a match, and I’m trying my best,” he said.
De Minaur is applauded by Sinner as he leaves the court following his quarterfinal loss. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
“If anything, it’s frustrating that I can’t do it. I’m doing my best, but I can’t make it into even a match where the crowd can get behind and start supporting.
“That’s what he does so well. He comes out of the blocks in the sets so well. Whenever we’ve played, it feels like the first three games, four games he gets the early break, and then all of a sudden we never really end up getting to later stages of sets where all of a sudden you can have scoreboard pressure, all of a sudden the rallies can get a little bit tense, and I can ask more questions and get the crowd involved, and all that kind of stuff.”
Somehow finding a way to take the matches against the best players deeper is where de Minaur needs to start. From there, he can use his high level of conditioning to grind out results.
De Minaur described Sinner’s aura as “surreal” after the loss, which makes you wonder whether he really truly believes he can ever beat the Italian and other players on his level.
There will come a time where de Minaur breaks through the quarterfinal wall in a grand slam. He will eventually find a way to topple Sinner before his career is over, he is too good not to.
But now is a time for de Minaur to do some soul-searching, and part of that is realising that right now the likes of Sinner are simply a cut above.
