Alex de Minaur surprised some of his opponents after reaching the US Open quarterfinals.
De Minaur has achieved his best results at the US Open compared to other Grand Slam tournaments, and he was able to reach his third quarterfinal in New York this year.
The Australian appeared to have his best opportunity yet to reach a major semifinal, but De Minaur was beaten by Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinals.
Despite De Minaur’s Grand Slam season ending in disappointment, one of the players he beat at the US Open has now explained why it was so difficult to play against him.
Leandro Riedi explains why he found it so difficult to play Alex de Minaur at the US Open
Leandro Riedi was the world number 435 coming into the US Open this year, where he qualified for the main draw for the first time in his career.
The former junior Grand Slam finalist would surpass all expectations and beat 19th seed Francisco Cerundolo to reach the last-16 in New York.
That is where Riedi would play De Minaur, who was just one match too far for the Swiss player.
De Minaur beat Riedi, 6-3 6-2 6-1, and the 23-year-old has now reflected on the match three weeks later.
When speaking on The Changeover Podcast, Riedi admitted that he felt under pressure from the first point and explained what De Minaur kept doing with his backhand that he has not seen before.
Riedi did suggest that he sensed a weakness in De Minaur’s second serve, but was unable to fully take advantage of it the way that he would have liked.
“I mean after the first point I felt like the knife…he gave me the knife here,” began Riedi. “I felt instantly my serve he was returning back way easier than most of the guys I have played in my career. And he’s so fast, like you play one short ball and he moves in so fast and he gives you no time.
“And he was very flat, he played very flat on the backhand, he played so many backhands down the line, I never saw that against anyone. He always switched to backhand line, like okay I’ll go to forehand cross, but then he was already in the court for the line again.
“He’s playing so much line, I was not used to it and yeah his forehand is very good, he can rip pretty good with the forehand I would say. His serve is good, but not the best serve I have ever seen to be honest, especially the second serve I was able to attack, but I didn’t do any free points and I was exhausted a bit mentally and physical wise I wasn’t at my top and then to play De Minaur was just impossible task for me.
“I tried, but I played too much the same ball, the same stuff and he got used to it after one set and then he absolutely destroyed me, he killed me and after the match I was like [shrugs shoulders] lucky I did a few games I guess.
“No, it was just I had no solutions and in the end I just tried to play like this [puts hand over his eyes] to get some points and the only thing that p***** him off a bit was my returning, I was returning well and he was sometimes looking out of like his serve, he was sometimes struggling with his serve. That was the one thing that got him annoyed, but the other thing in the rallies he was way better than me, way better than me and I was surprised there.”
Why has Leandro Riedi not played a match since the US Open?
Despite producing the best result of his career so far and rising back into the top 200 of the ATP rankings, Riedi has not played a match since the US Open.
Riedi has not had it easy over the past year, undergoing two knee surgeries after reaching his career-high ranking of world number 117 in August 2024.
While it does not appear that this latest injury is anywhere near as serious, Riedi has revealed that his recent absence from the ATP Tour is related to another setback he has suffered.
“I’m currently back home at my apartment due to my rehab time I have to do with my little injury I have, but I will be back in October, but for now I am back home in the lovely Switzerland,” said Riedi.
Riedi mentioned that October is when he plans to return to the ATP Tour, and that is when he is entered into the Challenger event in Roanne, France.
The current world number 170 is also entered into the ATP 250 event in Brussels, but as the 42nd alternate it appears unlikely that he will be able to make it into that tournament.
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