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MELBOURNE, Australia — Cue the inevitable groans of disappointment. Prepare to hear about how he under delivered yet again. Brace yourself for the social media comments that he just doesn’t have what it takes to be a major champion. It all comes around like clockwork.
Australia’s top-ranked Alex de Minaur bowed out of the Australian Open on Tuesday evening, the fifth consecutive year he’s fallen at either the fourth round or quarterfinal hurdle at his home Grand Slam. And while on the surface it may seem like frustrating deja vu, this fortnight at Melbourne Park was both a step forward in his development as a tennis professional and further proof the external bar of de Minaur expectation sits unfairly high.
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For two hours and 15 minutes at Rod Laver Arena, de Minaur scrapped hard, desperately trying to feed off the energy of a crowd that was willing him to victory against the world’s No. 1 player, Carlos Alcaraz.
De Minaur actually hit fewer unforced errors than the Spaniard, even broke his serve twice in an incredibly hard-fought opening set. But as has been the case in the five prior meetings between the pair, Alcaraz showed little regard for de Minaur’s heart and tenacity, running away with the match, winning 7-5, 6-2, 6-1.
And you know what, there’s hardly any disgrace in losing to a man that has achieved more in tennis over the past 40 months than everyone else in the sport’s history, save about a dozen names.
Alex de Minaur was beaten by Carlos Alcaraz in the Australian Open quarterfinals. Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Still, it won’t stop the inevitable questions of whether de Minaur will ever be a Grand Slam champion. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? But perhaps it’s time we begin appreciating de Minaur for what he has achieved, as opposed to feeling let down when he falls short of clearing the public’s wildly high bar of expectation.
De Minaur is a cemented top 10 player in the world and a perennial feature in the second week at Grand Slams. He has reached the quarterfinals in six of the last eight majors and made at least the Round of 16 at the Australian Open for five straight years, the first Australian man since John Newcombe in 1977 to achieve the feat.
Last year, he reached at least the fourth round at all but one Masters 1000 event. On four occasions he contested a quarterfinal. He ended the year with a semifinal appearance at the season-ending ATP Finals. He’s been a picture of consistency.
And yet the narrative remains that he continues to underperform. It seems that anything short of hoisting a major trophy leads to the feeling he’s under-delivered. A timely reminder, only four men get to contest the semifinals at each Grand Slam, and only one gets to hold the championship trophy aloft.
“You try to do the right things, you try to keep on improving, but when the results don’t come or the scoreline doesn’t reflect those improvements, then of course you feel quite deflated,” de Minaur said in his press conference following the loss. “You just got to keep on moving. It’s the only way. I mean, as tough as it is when you get results like this, you get back up, you get back on the horse.”
Alex de Minaur stretches to reach a ball against Carlos Alcaraz, in their quarterfinal on Tuesday. Shi Tang/Getty Images
De Minaur’s unlikely to ever be the strongest guy on the tour. He’s never going to have the most powerful serve, or deadly forehand, weapons we have historically associated with those at the pointiest end of the rankings. What de Minaur has is a near unrivaled ability to glide around the court, tracking balls down with his electric speed and making opponents continually play that extra shot. And sometimes that’s just not enough to beat some of these other guys. And that’s okay.
Look at the names he’s faced in Slam quarterfinals since the start of 2024. Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic, Jack Draper (while battling a hip injury), Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and now Alcaraz. These are Grand Slam-winning-calibre players, and aside from Draper (given the Australian’s injury) and Auger-Aliassime (a hard-fought affair), all were ranked higher than de Minaur at those Slams.
“I can decide to look at it two different ways,” said de Minaur. “I can look at it, the fact that I’m losing to — at the Australian Open — I’ve lost to Rafa, Novak, Jannik twice, now Carlos. I’m not losing too many matches to players I possibly shouldn’t lose to, right?”
It’s true. He has literally never lost a match at the Australian Open to an opponent ranked below him. Ever.
For comparison’s sake, Nick Kyrgios has made one quarterfinal at Melbourne Park, 11 years ago. He’s done it four times overall. De Minaur, who is four years younger, has already achieved it twice in Melbourne and seven times overall, but gets nowhere near the headlines or fanfare.
De Minaur routinely maximises his talent and yet the tennis-watching public continually ask for more. But why can’t we just sit back, enjoy the show, and give the man his flowers for being one of the best tennis players on the planet?
