Australia’s Alex de Minaur is through to the quarter-finals of the Canadian Open as his insane defensive work rate guided him to three set victory against seventh seed Frances Tiafoe in Toronto.
De Minaur prevailed 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 24 minutes to advance to the final eight, which also contains countryman Alexei Popyrin, at the tournament he made the final of in 2023.
The ninth seed was up a set and a break before Tiafoe fought back in the second set, but it was with the scores locked at 4-4, 40-all in the deciding set that de Minaur’s heroics effectively decided the match.
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The 26-year-old’s never say die attitude was on show as he sprinted from side to side and up, back and across the court to chase down ball after ball, eventually wearing Tiafoe down as he put a backhanded half volley into the net to end the point.
In total, de Minaur dug out two Tiafoe forehands from the forehand corner of the court, then sprinted across to the backhand side to return another big forehand before hunting down a drop shot he had no right to get to.
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The American appeared dumbfounded by the madness of de Minaur’s movement, and he was unable to recoup quick enough to prevent the Australian sealing the break and then serving out the match.
“It was never going to be easy and Frances has the ability to turn the switch on whenever he wants, so it is always very tricky to put him away,” de Minaur said.
“I think I battled him, myself and the conditions and I am happy to sneak away with a win today.”
De Minaur is in impressive form, having won his tenth career ATP title in Washington last week.
The victory against Tiafoe has helped lift him up two places into sixth in the race to the ATP Finals standings as he chases a second career appearance in the season ending event for the top eight players in the world of the year.
If de Minaur can win three more matches this week to claim the title won by Popyrin last year, he will leapfrog Novak Djokovic into sixth in the world rankings.
A career best season is also in reach, as his win was his 37th of the year, and last year’s 47 victories is his career-best tally.
Awaiting him in the quarter-finals is Ben Shelton after the American defeated Favio Cobolli in three sets to lock in the first meeting between the pair.
De Minaur also picked up a slice of Australian history, matching former world No.1 and two-time US Open champion Pat Rafter for the second most tour-level hard-court wins among Australian men in the Open era with 212. Lleyton Hewitt is on top with 372.