2 days ago
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Fuelled by revenge, dismissing doubters and upturning narratives, Alex de Minaur is within reach of somewhere he has never been. The home hope blitzed his bogeyman Alexander Bublik in just 92 minutes on Sunday night to book a place in his seventh grand slam quarter-final, and a tantalising showdown with the top seed Carlos Alcaraz.
Sunday’s match finished in a blink, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1, before the sun went down over a surprisingly chilly Rod Laver Arena that left the Kazakhstani cussing to his coach about the conditions.
De Minaur said he “wanted my revenge” against an opponent who had come back to beat him twice in 2025 and who is already a tournament winner in 2026. “I was very pleased with getting over the line and not getting into trouble,” the No 6 seed said. “He can so easily get back into a match, slap a couple of winners, and all of a sudden, the match just goes sideways.”
Alcaraz now stands in front of Australia’s highest Melbourne Park men’s seed in two decades. The career-best form of De Minaur only builds anticipation for a clash that had already been circled when the draw was released 10 days ago.
Famously, De Minaur has never gone beyond the quarter-finals of a grand slam despite getting there six times, including last summer in Melbourne when he was helpless against a rampant Jannik Sinner. He has not beaten Alcaraz in five meetings.
The Australian said he recognised Tuesday would be his “toughest test yet”, and he believed Alcaraz was becoming more focused in matches. “In the past, he’s maybe had times where he’s maybe been able to give you a couple of cheap points here and there and let opponents get into the match, and he’s been working on that, so he’s going to only make it harder.”
De Minaur seems to be a different player at Melbourne Park this year, too, after trouncing first No 29 seed Frances Tiafoe and now Bublik. The latter had already won a lead-in tournament in Hong Kong three weeks ago and, at No 10, is at a career-high rank. Now, he is also the first top 10 player De Minaur has beaten at his home slam. “I’m just showing the people that I have improved, right?” De Minaur said. “I’ve got more to give. I got tired of the narrative that these big hitters can take the racket out of my hands.”
A packed Rod Laver Arena was just settling into his contest with Bublik when the score was 4-4 in the opening set. They weren’t expecting De Minaur to find an entirely new level. But he won 14 of the next 16 games to end the match as a contest.
Midway through the barrage, Bublik was caught on a microphone complaining about the speed of the court, saying to his team: “how can I hit? It’s a fucking ping pong ball, it doesn’t fly.” To the awaiting press afterwards, he repeated the point more eloquently, but was also gracious towards his opponent. “It was my fault, I didn’t adjust to the conditions as fast as I usually would do,” he said. “That’s tennis, he played a great match, he deserved to win. Definitely, he was the better player.”
The De Minaur v Alcaraz match is set to be played on the hottest day in Melbourne since 2020. The Australian doesn’t mind the heat – “I mean, I’m Aussie,” he said – but he seems resigned to the roof being closed, as it was on Saturday when the temperature topped 40C.
Whether the area is open or not, De Minaur will go into the match as the clear underdog. After his victory on Sunday, he was adamant that it is not his responsibility to tell people – despite his record in grand slams and against Alcaraz – that he has a chance. Rather, he just wants to show it.
“I’m not going to come out here and plead Australia to believe in me, [that] I can do it,” he said. “I’m going to go out there, I’m going to compete. I’m going to go after the match, I’m excited for the battle.”
“Yeah, ultimately it’s something that I have never done, but, you know, there is always a first time for everything. I’m hoping that will be on Tuesday.”
