How Alex de Minaur reset for week two of a slam

NEW YORK – There is a lot of talk about “reset” at the US Open of this year. Coco Gauff used a bathroom break to reset after a panic attack during her second round meeting with Donna Vekic, while Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who have endured difficult Grand Slam seasons, will now take a reset to get their career back on the Rails.

For Alex de Minauraur in Australia, who takes on Felix Auger-Aliasses on Wednesday while trying to reach his very first semi-final in a major, means resetting routines. He will shave, change where he could eat, change his shoes, all attempt to reset his thoughts and give himself the best possible chance to succeed.

Martina Navratilova and Maria Sharapova always said that reaching the quarterfinals was when Grand Slam tournaments really started. The minaur says it is week two. “Second week of a SLAM is a completely different dynamic,” De Minaur told ESPN at Flushing Meadows. “It is the business end of the tournament. The way these tournaments work, you know a bit that it is a long journey, so it’s good to have a bit of a mental reset, to have those short -term goals and then it’s a whole new tournament. That’s when you don’t know so far away for the big title.”

Of course there is even a little routine in the change of routines of the Minaur. “I always shave before the tournament and then every time I enter the new week, I shave again,” said the no. 8 seed. “It is my way to reset mentally. I will have these little things that I am adjusting. I will change shoes, I will have a number of other equipment. It just feels like this is going now, and this is where I want to be.”

A Grand Slam event in week two is a completely different place than in week one. After the bustle of the first few days, when 128 games are played during the men’s and women’s event, everything was expressed in the second week. Breaking spaces are empty. The dynamic changes. It is something that players have to get used to.

“It is very different in that sense, the whole atmosphere feels a bit different,” said the Minaur. “There are much fewer players. There are not so many singles players left. It is more the doubles. The juniors start. It is a very different place.”

One of the most difficult employees on tour, and perhaps the fastest mover on a tennis court, the Minaur has been one of the most consistent players for several years now, always looking for something extra to make the big breakthrough, add strength to his Serve and more doll in his forehand. A competition in the last 16 at Slams, he returned from an early loss at the French Open to reach the fourth round in Wimbledon.

At the US Open of this year he is of the last eight and he only dropped one set-the first Australian man who made back-to-back quarterfinals at the US Open since Lleyton Hewitt, who made seven in a row from 2000 to 2006, and won the title in 2001.

It is five years ago that the Minaur reached the last eight by a major for the first time and lost to Dominic Thiem, the final champion, on the US Open in 2020. Alexander Zverev stopped him last year at the French Open, he had to retreat by Blessure for a planned meeting with Novak Djokovic in the Jack Daperon was still in Jack Dapedon was still in Jackedon in Jackedon and was still in the Jack Diron in Jackedon and was still in Jackedon in Jackedon and was still in Jackedon in Jackedon in Jackedon. in last year. In Australia he found Jannik Sinner too strong at the beginning of 2025.

The match of the minaur with Auger-Aliassime is the first time he is the favorite, at least on paper, to reach the semi-final.

That said, the Canadian played excellent tennis last week, eliminated the third seed Zverev and following with a hard -fought victory over Andrey Rublev. The Minaur also follows 2-1 in their head-to-heads and knows that he must find a way to prevent Auger-Aliasses from cutting and appreciating that when he is at his game, it is difficult to defeat.