By Marc McGowan
The Alex de Minaur torture chamber has claimed another victim.
Australia’s world No.8 defied his underwhelming grand slam record when he loses the first set to outlast 31st-seeded Argentine Francisco Cerundolo 5-7, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-3 to reach the Australian Open’s last 16 for the fourth year in a row.
Alex de Minaur celebrates his third-round win over Francisco Cerundolo.Credit: Chris Hopkins
De Minaur had won only seven of his 30 slam matches in that scenario before the Cerundolo victory, which booked him a date with big-striking American Alex Michelsen.
Afterwards, he credited his reflex volley winner off a net cord in the 12th game as a key moment in his victory, particularly in him avoiding going two sets down.
De Minaur also revealed it was the first time playing in Australia that he had felt the pressure and expectation of carrying a nation’s hopes.
“It was definitely not pretty [but] I found a way. That’s all that matters. That’s all I need to do in these types of moments: find a way to get through the first week,” de Minaur said.
“By no means was it pretty. I’m glad I made it over the line … it wasn’t looking good [late in the second set]. I wasn’t feeling comfortable out there.
“I felt like things weren’t really going my way. Then all of a sudden, I made contact with the ball off a net cord and reflexed it over the line in a pretty big moment. It was definitely a difference-maker.”
De Minaur also warned his rivals that his famed court coverage was “back” after his well-documented struggles in the second half of last year with a complicated hip injury.
He slapped both his quads repeatedly in celebration during the seventh game of the fourth set, when he put his wheels to great use to place another nail in the Argentine’s coffin.
“It was tough last year with the injury, even coming back on court and competing and not feeling like myself,” de Minaur said.
“It’s been a long six months, but, gee, it feels good now I have my legs back.”
Michelsen upset Russian 19th seed and 2023 Australian Open semi-finalist Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 after eliminating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round.
De Minaur has never advanced beyond the fourth round at Melbourne Park, but another win over Michelsen – they split their two meetings to date – would complete his set of grand slam quarter-finals.
He went agonisingly close to doing it 12 months ago, only for Russian top-10 star Andrey Rublev to storm back from two-sets-to-one down to beat the Aussie in five sets.
“[Michelsen] has been playing really well. He’s a dangerous opponent with a lot of confidence now,” de Minaur said.
“He’s taken some big scalps this week, so I’m ready for a battle. He’s going to go out there with no fear. I’m going to do my best to make it difficult for him.”
There is also a career-best ranking up for grabs for de Minaur, who soared to No.6 after his Wimbledon quarter-final run last year.
With world No.4 Taylor Fritz on Saturday joining Casper Ruud, Daniil Medvedev, Rublev, Grigor Dimitrov and Tsitsipas on the tournament scrapheap, de Minaur suddenly has a shot at breaking into the top five.
The 25-year-old would first have to reach the semi-finals to overtake Medvedev and climb to sixth.
Cerundolo flashed some superb shot making at times, but began cramping during the third set as the punishment of sharing the court with de Minaur took its toll.
He did not even bother chasing the last ball in the third set, and grabbed at the back of his leg after dumping a volley into the net a game before that when he conceded a crucial break of serve.
Cerundolo was physically compromised from that point forward, continuing to receive treatment from the trainer in the fourth set.
De Minaur did not necessarily have his best stuff, particularly on serve, including nine double faults, and looked in serious peril at various stages.
The last Australian standing will look back gratefully on one moment late in the second set that may have avoided him being in a two-set hole.
Trailing Cerundolo 6-5 and having already dropped the first point on serve, de Minaur’s incredible reflex volley off the net cord proved the impetus for a vicious swing of momentum.
The last Australian standing has never recovered from a two-set deficit.
It was even more important a point later, when the Argentine smoked what was already his 12th forehand winner at the time to reduce de Minaur to 15-30.
But he won the next three points to force a tiebreak, which he never trailed in as he went into lockdown mode and refused to make errors.
Even then, de Minaur still had not found top gear – and he started the third set with consecutive double faults.
He has placed great emphasis in the past few years on becoming stronger to be better-equipped to hang tough with the tour’s titans, and he is more often than not collecting more cheap points on serve than he used to.
That was rarely the case against Cerundolo.
De Minaur not only spent much of the match with his first-serve percentage south of 50, but was winning fewer than 60 per cent of those points midway through the second set.
That finished at 70 per cent by match’s end as the Australian star wore down Cerundolo and began to dictate more from the baseline.
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