De Minaur makes maiden Australian Open quarter-final

Alex de Minaur is through to his first Australian Open quarter-final, with the local hope beating Alex Michelsen 6-0, 7-6(5), 6-3 on Monday night in Melbourne.

Prior to 2025, de Minaur had made the fourth round of the year’s first major three consecutive times but was unable to move through to the last eight.

Now, he becomes just the third Australian man to reach the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park since 2005, joining Lleyton Hewitt and Nick Kyrgios.

“I’m super happy, super happy to finally break through, finally get that milestone moment here at the Australian Open,” he said after the match.

“It feels like the Slam that kept on slipping away where I felt like I had a little bit of a barrier at the fourth round.

“So it feels very good to finally break through another milestone in my career.”

Against Michelsen, de Minaur thrilled the Rod Laver Arena crowd with clean tennis, striking half the number of unforced errors as his opponent to win in two hours and 10 minutes.

It took the American 40 minutes to win his first game, with the 20-year-old playing in his first round-of-16 match at a Grand Slam.

Despite the slow start, Michelsen came back strongly in the second set, breaking de Minaur’s serve at 5-3 to force a tiebreaker, which he led 5-4 before losing the final three points in a row.

Buoyed by a two-sets-to-love lead, the No.8 seed was able to pull away and close out the match in straight sets.

De Minaur has now made the quarter-finals of every Grand Slam, with the 25-year-old making the last eight at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2024.

In the next round he will face top seed Jannik Sinner, against whom he holds a 0-9 head-to-head record.

Tennis bookmakers put de Minaur as a $5 underdog to upset the Italian.

“The great thing about tennis is that once you step out on the court, you both start at 0-0, right?” he said of the upcoming match.

“It’s a whole new day, a whole new match, and anything can happen. Sports is unpredictable.

“That’s exactly the mindset I’m going to have going into that match.

“I’m looking forward to it. That’s the matches I want to be playing.

“Ultimately, if there is anything, it’s going to be my first match this whole tournament where I’m the underdog and don’t have all the pressure and expectation of, you know, having to win.

“So it’s quite exciting, and I’m looking forward to that.”

Neds has Sinner as the heavy favourite to defend his Australian Open title in 2025, paying just $2.10 for the 23-year-old to win the title.

Behind him, Carlos Alcaraz ($3), Novak Djokovic ($6.50) and Alexander Zverev ($7) are the other title contenders, while de Minaur sits on the fifth line of betting at a much longer $21 to claim his first major trophy.

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