Top seed Carlos Alcaraz is within two wins of a career grand slam after inflicting further pain on Alex de Minaur in a largely easy quarter-final win at the Australian Open, securing 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 in 136 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.
The highly anticipated clash delivered a sensational first set in which De Minaur looked like a peer of the world number 1. However, Alcaraz took control after an hour, leaving the last Australian in the singles helpless and irritated and trailing the baseline between points.
De Minaur is now the third man in the Open era, after Andrey Rublev and Tommy Robredo, to lose his first seven grand slam quarter-finals.
Alcaraz won the first three games of each set, and while the Australian found a revival in the first frame, the Spaniard’s serve and groundstrokes weakened De Minaur’s brave but ultimately helpless defense.
The No. 1 seed said his level has risen as the tournament has progressed, but he admitted he was tested in that first set. “I started the game really well and hit the ball really well – in just two games I hit seven or eight winners – so it was a great, great level,” he said.
‘But Alex forces you [feel like] you’re in a hurry all the time, so you want to hit the ball as hard as you can every ball, which is impossible against him. From 3-0 to 4-3 I was in a hurry, but I took some time, took a break.”
On a day when the regional area around the city broke temperature records, Melbourne Park’s heat stress scale dropped not long after 7pm. Shortly after the one-sided Elina Svitolina-Coco Gauff fight, the roof opened over Rod Laver Arena and light flooded into the arena, which was still cooled by air conditioning.
De Minaur hoped that this would bring about a new dawn. Of course he had lost his first six Grand Slam quarter-finals, but also his first five matches against Alcaraz. The vast majority of the 15,000-seat arena felt the same way, but when the sleeveless man raced to 40-0 in the first game and then to 3-0 in the first set, things weren’t looking good.
The Australian may be four years older than his opponent at 26, but his excellent mobility and improved all-round game have helped him close the gap with Alcaraz and Sinner at the top of tennis. As the arena heated up from the invading air, De Minaur managed to find the quality that has taken him to a career-high ranking of six.
He got the match back on serve twice, the second with an airborne backhand that found the corner and was the shot of the match. But when he served to force a tiebreak, the Australian hesitated. It was as close as he could get to parity, and early breaks in the second and third sets gave the fans an earlier evening than that first set had promised.
Alcaraz is now two wins away from his first Australian Open title, which would secure a career grand slam. At 22, he would be the youngest man to achieve the feat, eclipsing Don Budge, who completed the career grand slam at the 1938 French Championships.
The No. 1 seed now meets Alexander Zverev in his first Australian Open semi-final after the German defeated American Learner Tien on Tuesday afternoon. Alcaraz and Zverev have both won six of the twelve matches they have played.
The Spaniard said he wants to make up for their last meeting in Melbourne, a quarter-final defeat in 2024. “We have to play very, very well tactically, so it will be a great battle,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to playing against him again here and getting revenge.”
Australia’s hopes at Melbourne Park now rest on three doubles tandems. Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans are through to the men’s semi-finals, as are Olivia Gadecki and John Peers in the mix. Kimberly Birrell and Talia Gibson will play the women’s quarterfinals Wednesday night at Rod Laver Arena.
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