Two years ago Alex de Minaur was on the wrong end of a Novak Djokovic masterclass. He finds himself in a very similar position now.
On Wednesday night, after a straight-sets humbling by world No.1 Jannik Sinner, the Australian sat in front of a room of reporters, apologetic that he had not given the crowd what they wanted, glowing about how well his opponent played, and yearning for more from himself.
De Minaur won five games in that fourth-round loss to Djokovic in 2023, and six in his quarter-final defeat to Sinner.
The harsh among us will say little has changed, that the Australian star remains admirable – a patronising term – but short of the absolute best. Dig deeper and you find a tad more perspective.
Djokovic is a 10-time Australian Open champion and undeniably the greatest male tennis player of all time, while Sinner won two slam titles last year, 73 matches from 79 overall, and is well on the way to becoming one of tennis’ greats.
As de Minaur bluntly put it about Sinner’s performance: “He was bloody good tonight.”
Alex de Minaur plays a forehand return.Credit: AP
We are a greedy sporting public, in Australia – and that extends to how we assess our tennis players. From Ash Barty, to Lleyton Hewitt, Pat Rafter and Sam Stosur, to Pat Cash, Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, Margaret Court, John Newcombe and Rod Laver, we have been spoiled.
Our relatively consistent grand slam success has warped reality.
It means we perhaps do not fully appreciate what de Minaur is doing. At 25, he gatecrashed the top 10 for the first time last year and he is on a streak of four major quarter-finals.
De Minaur is the first Australian man since Hewitt two decades ago to achieve all that, while he ended a decade-long drought in reaching the last eight in the Australian Open men’s singles.
Most impressive is how the six-footer has doggedly and incrementally improved his arsenal – he can hit 215km/h serves these days – and been rewarded with increasingly excellent results.
De Minaur prematurely made a slam quarter-final at the 2020 US Open in a COVID-19 weakened field. In truth, the larger sample size suggested he was more of a round-of-32 guy.
By 2022-23, “Demon” was a round-of-16 player.
Now, as the eighth-best player in the world – he was No.6 straight after a cruelly timed hip injury ended his Wimbledon run six months ago – he has competed in four grand slam quarter-finals in a row.
Critics, and even fans, of de Minaur have put a ceiling on him at every step, even when he insisted they were wrong, as he did again after the Sinner result.
“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,” de Minaur said.
“If I’m in a different side of the draw [than Sinner], 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 quarter-finals in a slam.
“I see other players who have made it further, have made semis, have made finals, and I do believe that I can be among them. If they have been able to accomplish that, then why not me?”
The easy retort is to mention Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and even a 37-year-old Djokovic, who continues to defy gravity with his extraordinary longevity.
But de Minaur is a problem solver with a good deal of belief and an even greater work ethic, who has a track record of raising the bar.
He was as candid about Sinner’s mastery over him as he has ever been on Wednesday night, which was understandable after a 10th defeat in as many clashes that was as comprehensive as any of them.
De Minaur has won just one set in those matches, in a tie-breaker, more than four years ago.
Still, de Minaur went on to discuss how he and his team needed to figure out a way to hurt the Italian on court, so he has not given up. He never gives up.
Everyone else would do well to do the same when it comes to de Minaur.
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