{"id":395703,"date":"2026-01-06T17:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T17:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395703\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T17:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T17:10:16","slug":"australias-spot-booked-at-united-cup-quarter-finals-after-de-minaurs-high-pressure-double-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395703\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s spot booked at United Cup quarter finals after De Minaur’s high-pressure double act"},"content":{"rendered":"

An inspired Alex de Minaur has answered his captain’s call to pilot Australia into the United Cup quarter-finals with two do-or-die victories in Sydney.<\/p>\n

The tournament hosts were staring down the barrel of elimination from the $17 million teams’ showpiece after an off-colour Maya Joint suffered a 6-4 6-1 loss to dual grand slam champion Barbora Krejcikova in Tuesday night’s opening singles match.<\/p>\n

But de Minaur stepped up to level the must-win clash with Czechia with a 6-4 6-1 triumph over boom talent Jakub Mensik, the youngest player in the world’s top 20.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

De Minaur was at his athletic best, beating Mensik in straight sets.\u00a0 (AAP: Mark Evans)<\/p>\n

Australia’s tennis ‘Demon’ then delivered again after skipper Lleyton Hewitt asked his spearhead to replace John-Patrick Smith and partner Storm Hunter in the deciding mixed doubles.<\/p>\n

Joint ordered to rest due to illness<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia’s teen sensation is forced to lay low, with team captain Lleyton Hewitt hoping it is just a 24-hour thing.<\/p>\n

De Minaur and Hunter duly denied Dalibor Svrcina and Miram Skoch 6-2 6-3 in a tense encounter that belied the lopsided scoreline to secure Australia a 2-1 victory and Group D honours.<\/p>\n

The reward for the 2024 semi-finalists is a likely quarter-final showdown on Friday night at Ken Rosewall Arena with Iga Swiatek’s Team Poland, while Czechia also progressed to the last eight as the best runners-up from the three Sydney pools.<\/p>\n

De Minaur dazzles<\/p>\n

While Joint misfired on her return after missing Australia’s weekend win over Norway through illness, de Minaur dazzled in rebounding from his season-opening loss to Casper Ruud and improving his perfect record over the 18th-ranked Mensik to five from five.<\/p>\n

“Obviously I didn’t start the year the way I wanted to but I tried to not take that match too much into account,” de Minaur said.<\/p>\n

“I thought Casper played really well but something that I’ve done really well in my career is bouncing back, so I’m very happy with the way I bounced back today.”<\/p>\n

De Minaur’s triumph, coupled with a shock loss earlier on Tuesday for Felix Auger-Aliassime in Canada’s elimination from the event, also vaulted the 26-year-old to a career-high No.5 in the live ATP rankings.<\/p>\n

De Minaur undaunted by United Cup loss<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex de Minaur is not concerned about his Australian Open preparations, believing he can “flip that switch” after recording his first career defeat to Casper Ruud.<\/p>\n

If he maintains that position when the new rankings are released on Monday, de Minaur will enter the Australian Open seeded fifth, behind only heavyweights Carlos Alcaraz, two-time defending AO champ Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev and 10-time winner Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n

On track to gain a first-time grand slam seeding at this month’s Australian Open, Joint soared to No.32 in the world in a spectacular two-title season in 2025.<\/p>\n

But facing Krejcikova \u2014 the 2021 French Open winner and 2024 Wimbledon champion \u2014 proved too tall an order for the underdone 19-year-old in her first match of the year.<\/p>\n

The accomplished Krejcikova, who also boasts a rare career golden slam in doubles, broke Joint in the opening games of both sets to have the home favourite on the back foot throughout.<\/p>\n

\"Spectators<\/p>\n

Spectators held Australian flags whilst supporting Alex de Minaur and Storm Hunter at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney. (AAP: Mark Evans)<\/p>\n

While de Minaur captured the headlines for his high-pressure double act, Hewitt also once again has Hunter to thank for Australia reaching the quarter-finals for a second time in the past three years.<\/p>\n

As well as her successful support role on Tuesday night, the resurgent 31-year-old played the hero in Saturday’s victory over Norway, winning her singles match after deputising for Joint and then combining with Smith to clinch the tie with a thrilling doubles comeback display.<\/p>\n

“I definitely knew this match was a must win and, yeah, pressure is a privilege and to do it at home \u2014 we had the crowd, home advantage and we weren’t going to lose this one,” Hunter said.<\/p>\n

“Demon brings energy. He’s clutch under pressure, so I felt really confident with him by my side.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An inspired Alex de Minaur has answered his captain’s call to pilot Australia into the United Cup quarter-finals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[18278,64,63,81320,80065,85,747,148639],"class_list":{"0":"post-395703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-alex-de-minaur","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-barbora-krejcikova","12":"tag-czechia","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-united-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395703","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=395703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}