{"id":111221,"date":"2025-09-01T17:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T17:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/111221\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T17:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T17:03:10","slug":"alex-de-minaur-career-defining-moment-arrives-at-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/111221\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur career-defining moment arrives at US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

For context, de Minaur\u2019s five quarter-final foes at majors were: world No.3 Dominic Thiem (2020 US Open), world No.4 Zverev (2024 Roland-Garros), world No.2 Djokovic (2024 Wimbledon), world No.25 Jack Draper (2024 US Open), and world No.1 Sinner (2025 Australian Open).<\/p>\n

Draper\u2019s ranking stands out, but de Minaur was physically compromised that New York day<\/a> by a rare hip setback that sidelined him for months beforehand, and afterwards.<\/p>\n

\"De<\/p>\n

De Minaur has dropped only one set in advancing to the fourth round at this year\u2019s US Open.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

The big-hitting Brit also became a top-five player this year before relenting to his own injury.<\/p>\n

There are zero excuses this time for \u201cDemon\u201d.<\/p>\n

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For all the respectful words de Minaur had for Riedi, the tour battler is a dream opponent, particularly this late in the tournament \u2013 and much preferred to seeded rivals Karen Khachanov and Francisco Cerundolo, both of whom suffered upset second-round defeats.<\/p>\n

Like de Minaur, 15th-ranked Rublev is a many-times major quarter-finalist who has never cleared that hurdle. They played a five-set epic in the fourth round of last year\u2019s Australian Open that the Russian won.<\/p>\n

De Minaur and Rublev have split their eight career meetings, and both will view playing the other as a huge opportunity.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Auger-Aliassime is a former world No.6 who made the 2021 US Open semi-finals, as well as the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the Australian Open either side of that, but is now ranked No.27 and has largely disappointed since.<\/p>\n

He leads de Minaur 2-1 head-to-head, but the Australian won their only clash after 2022.<\/p>\n

De Minaur still must account for Riedi, and neither Rublev nor Auger-Aliassime will be easy \u2013 far from it \u2013 but a career-defining few days have arrived for the country\u2019s best men\u2019s player since Lleyton Hewitt.<\/p>\n

\"World<\/p>\n

World No.435 Leandro Riedi, of Switzerland, stands between Alex de Minaur and a sixth career grand slam quarter-final.Credit: AP<\/p>\n

By placing himself repeatedly in the mix with an outstanding track record of consistency, he has earned himself some luck with the draw.<\/p>\n

However, failing to deliver will, fairly or not, effectively throw de Minaur to the lions, who in this analogy are the critics who have long doubted him, and his ceiling as a player.<\/p>\n

His outward disappointment at having Djokovic on the ropes and letting him escape<\/a> in their fourth-round clash at Wimbledon this year was evidence that he wants and expects more, too.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, progressing to a maiden major semi-final would be another fillip for a player who once got stuck in the third round at the slams, then later the fourth round, but through incremental improvements continues to edge closer to the top.<\/p>\n

De Minaur would also get his wish of a primetime slot on the world\u2019s biggest tennis arena, Arthur Ashe Stadium, after calling his repeat scheduling away from the US Open\u2019s three major courts \u201ca head-scratcher\u201d.<\/p>\n

On every measure, his time is now.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe way I go about my things is to let the tennis do the talking, and I take a lot of pride in that,\u201d de Minaur said. \u201cHopefully, I can be here in New York for much, much longer. But for me, this was the first job done. Now, it\u2019s onto the second week, which I\u2019m quite excited for.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Minaur\u2019s fourth-round clash with Riedi is scheduled to start on Tuesday at 1am AEST on Louis Armstrong Stadium.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of the US Open live and on demand on Stan Sport, with select coverage also available on Channel 9 and 9Now.<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For context, de Minaur\u2019s five quarter-final foes at majors were: world No.3 Dominic Thiem (2020 US Open), world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-111221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}