Alex de Minaur suffered a straight-sets defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
De Minaur has really struggled against both Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, having lost all 18 combined matches he had played against them heading into the Australian Open quarterfinal.
The world number six was looking to change that in Melbourne, with De Minaur the last remaining Australian player in the Australian Open singles draw this year.
However, De Minaur was beaten once again by Alcaraz, extending his winless record against the current top two players on the ATP Tour to 19 matches.
Alex de Minaur says if he took a ‘step forward’ against Carlos Alcaraz
Alcaraz beat De Minaur, 7-5 6-2 6-1, to win his sixth consecutive meeting against the Australian, which includes winning 11 of the 13 sets they have played.
Despite this, De Minaur was able to break the serve of Alcaraz twice in the first set, and after the match he was asked if he felt like he had taken a ‘step forward’ in terms of being more fearless in the high pressure moments of the match.
“Yeah,” De Minaur responded in his post-match press conference. “I mean, I’ve got to take something out of it, right, if not — and that’s it.
“Of course, look, in terms of mentality or the way I committed to hitting the ball today, it’s what I set out to do. I just can’t really execute it. I didn’t really execute it for the whole match.
“There was some good parts out there, but overall, I’m playing out of my comfort zone and at times out of my skin. Of course, for me to take that next step, I’ve got to be comfortable in playing that sort of way for the whole match, and that’s what it takes, you know, to take it to the next level, especially against these types of guys.”
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De Minaur was then asked a follow-up question about how comfortable he felt playing in the way that he did against Alcaraz.
The 26-year-old suggested that it was still a work in progress, as De Minaur explained the challenges of facing both Alcaraz and Sinner.
“You just keep practicing, keep working at it, keep getting to the stage of committing and playing at that level more frequently,” added De Minaur.
“Then, yeah, some tweaks here and there that’s going to allow me to increase ball speed, because at the moment the way my natural groundstrokes are, they’re quite flat, and it’s quite difficult for me.
“I mean, there’s a whole lot of risk for me to play at a very high ball speed, and I feel like, you know, some of my, in this case, your Jannik’s or Carlos, they have so many revolutions on the ball that they’re able to not only play at a higher speed but also have their consistency, because they’re able to get that spin that helps the ball come down and create different angles as well. Yeah, there’s stuff that I need to look at and see and try to work out, but yeah, it is what it is.”
De Minaur was then asked if he knows what he needs to do to make the next step to be able to actually beat Alcaraz and Sinner.
While he did not give a definitive answer to this question, De Minaur was trying to take encouragement from the fact that he only tends to lose to the best players at the Australian Open.
“I mean, you get back up, right? That’s what it is,” responded De Minaur. “I mean, yeah, I can decide to look at it two different ways, right? I can look at it the fact that, you know, I’m losing to — at the Australian Open, I’ve lost to Rafa [Nadal], Novak [Djokovic], Jannik twice, now Carlos. I’m not losing too many matches to players I possibly shouldn’t lose to, right?
“Yeah, you just got to keep on moving. It’s the only way. I mean, as tough as it is when you get results like this, you get back up, you get back on the horse, and that’s it.”
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De Minaur will now have a few weeks away from the match court before he needs to officially ‘get back on the horse’.
The next tournament on his schedule is at the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam, where he will be the third seed.
This is a tournament where he has found success before, with De Minaur losing to Alcaraz in the Rotterdam final last year, and Sinner in the final the year before.
Alcaraz is scheduled to be in Rotterdam once again this year, while Alexander Zverev is set to return to the tournament as the second seed.
The Rotterdam Open will get underway for Alcaraz, Zverev and De Minaur on February 9.
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