Demon lost another major quarter-final. He’s already thinking of how to get better

1 month ago 4

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There is little point in trying to convince anyone that Alex de Minaur’s latest grand slam quarter-final defeat at the Australian Open was different to the rest.

Even the ultra-competitive de Minaur was largely disinterested – at least in the hour or so after the match – in the positives of his 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 loss to an imperious Carlos Alcaraz, who could become the youngest man to win a career Grand Slam by Sunday night.

Alex De Minaur’s next challenge is getting comfortable where he is uncomfortable right now.

He played bigger and more fearlessly than ever before, and broke world No.1 Alcaraz’s serve twice in the opening set thanks to those things.

Yet, the result was the same, and that is all de Minaur cares about. He spent this summer, and particularly this Open, telling everyone that he was not satisfied being just another “number” in the draw.

It is patently obvious that the world No.6, who will remain at that ranking unless American Ben Shelton reaches the final, is one of the best few players on the planet. However, he hungers for grand slam glory – and that seems out of reach at the moment.

De Minaur winning only one set in his seven major quarter-finals, which includes his Wimbledon walkover two years ago, tells us that, but the reasons are many and varied.

Alcaraz can be brutally frank in his assessments, and was again when answering a question from this masthead about the Australian No.1 on Tuesday night.

“When [de Minaur]’s playing against the best or the top player, he’s trying to be more aggressive, which sometimes he’s just out of his comfort zone,” Alcaraz said.

“Sometimes, we’re seeing him miss some quite easy balls, let’s say. I notice that, and we know how to approach the match because, let’s say, we are one step forward in that case.”

Ouch. But only minutes later, de Minaur admitted the same thing.

However, what came next from the Australian was instructional on why he has continued to climb the tennis ladder, and why it would be dangerous to doubt that he won’t find a way to be better again. He is famous for finding ways to incrementally improve, and clearly took a leap this summer; just ask Frances Tiafoe and Alexander Bublik.

“We’re seeing him miss some quite easy balls”.

De Minaur’s next challenge is getting comfortable where he is uncomfortable right now. He hinted that might mean his traditionally flat ground strokes might go under renovation.

“[I need to make] some tweaks here and there that are going to allow me to increase ball speed because the way my natural ground strokes are, they’re quite flat, and it’s quite difficult for me,” de Minaur said. “There’s a whole lot of risk for me to play at a very high ball speed.

“Jannik [Sinner] and Carlos have so many revolutions on the ball that they’re able to not only play at a higher speed, but also have their consistency because they’re able to get that spin that helps the ball come down and create different angles as well. There’s stuff that I need to look at, and see and try to work out.”

De Minaur’s pursuit of a major semi-final will be greatly aided if he can force his way into a top-four seeding, which would remove the possibility of running into Alcaraz or Sinner in the last eight.

But neither Alexander Zverev nor 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic, even on a drastically reduced schedule, looks like budging anytime soon, while Lorenzo Musetti has beaten de Minaur to a top-five ranking. Plus, there are others, like Shelton, trying to overtake “Demon”, too.

He is playing with the big boys, and that is an achievement in itself, even if de Minaur is not completely satisfied with his lot.

What de Minaur should be pleased about is that he is still getting better – and it is a good sign that he is so cognisant of why there is a gap between him and the tour elite.

His Australian Open conquerors across the years include some of the who’s who of tennis, from Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to Sinner and Alcaraz. That might serve as a reality check, but it is also proof that, generally, it takes the absolute best to knock him off.

But does he still believe after falling short to another member of tennis royalty?