The Paris match that changed everything for Alex de Minaur

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Alex De Minaur infamously lost his first 18 matches to top-five opposition, helping create an unwanted narrative that he was a good player who would always fall short against the tour’s elite.

But then everything changed: he beat world No.3 Daniil Medvedev – who had just taken down a series of stars to win in Vienna – in November last year at the Paris Masters.

Alex de Minaur celebrates his progression at the US Open.Credit: Getty

“Why do it in the first 18, eh?” de Minaur mused afterwards.

De Minaur has since secured three more such wins: over Rafael Nadal at this year’s United Cup, Andrey Rublev at Rotterdam in February, then Medvedev again only a few weeks ago in Toronto on his way to reaching his first Masters 1000 final.

Speaking to this masthead during his Toronto run, de Minaur explained just how significant that Paris result was.

“It’s extremely satisfying [to beat the world’s best], and it’s one of the things I’m most proud of,” he said.

“It all started at the end of last year, when I finally was able to get my first top-five scalp in Medvedev in Paris, and from then, it opened a lot of doors and possibilities, and gave me belief that I could do this.

“It means I’m doing the right things, and getting closer to what I’ve always been trying to accomplish. I’ve been there in these situations where I win a lot of matches throughout the year, but when it comes to the bigger tournaments – I haven’t been able to perform the way I wanted to.”

It is fitting, then, that Medvedev is in the gritty Sydneysider’s way once more, in the last 16 at the US Open, as he hunts a career-best grand slam result.

De Minaur’s sole major quarter-final was also in New York three years ago, but there is an asterisk because it was at the height of COVID-19 and not all the best players competed at that US Open.

Three of his four wins that fortnight were against players ranked 51 or worse – two of them in the 90s – although he did fight back from two-sets-to-one down in the third round to dispatch 16th-ranked Karen Khachanov.

It would be a far greater achievement if de Minaur does it again in the days to come.

Medvedev, the 2021 US Open winner and a former world No.1, is still ranked the third-best men’s player, behind Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. It would be de Minaur’s greatest scalp.

His fourth-round losses at majors were to Grigor Dimitrov (2019 US Open), Jannik Sinner (2022 Australian Open), Cristian Garin (2022 Wimbledon) – from two sets up – and Djokovic (2023 Australian Open).

De Minaur’s 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 demolition of giant Chilean Nicolas Jarry, the No.23 seed, to earn his last-16 spot at this US Open on Sunday was a wonderful illustration of his new and improved self. Jarry’s no joke: he’s cut down Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alex Zverev and Tommy Paul this year.

That followed de Minaur dropping only four games in a straight-sets shellacking of China’s Wu Yibing a round earlier. He sits at a career-high No.11 in the live rankings, but could go up or down in the next week depending on results.

At 183 centimetres and 69 kilograms, de Minaur knows he cannot blow rivals away like his oversized, master-blaster peers. There will be times, as at Wimbledon this year against Matteo Berrettini, that he will be overpowered.

A look at his service statistics across the years show no great spike in winning percentage, but he offered a glimpse into how he has evolved in his comments after the Jarry triumph.

“The game plan against someone like Jarry, who’s got such big weapons, is to try to neutralise him and find a healthy balance between kind of pushing the ball and still being somewhat aggressive without missing,” de Minaur said.

“I think I found that line today – and it was great just to keep applying that pressure. If he wanted to win, he was going to have to come up with some amazing winners, and it didn’t discourage me.”

De Minaur broke the South American six times, saved the solitary break point on his own serve and won a staggering 85 per cent of points after landing his first delivery.

At age 24, de Minaur is climbing out of mentor Lleyton Hewitt’s sizeable shadow, and at the peak of his powers at a time compatriot Nick Kyrgios has played only once this year due to injuries.

He is Australia’s Davis Cup figurehead and at the forefront of the country’s uprising on the men’s side.

Wildcard Rinky Hijikata’s surprise run into the last 16, where he faces big-striking American Frances Tiafoe, means there will be nine Australian men inside the top 100 after the US Open.

That number does not include Kyrgios, who is projected to fall deep into the 400s as his absence continues – but a protected ranking of No.21 and a likely bevy of wildcards will aid him once he is fit again.

Australia’s competitiveness on the world stage, much like de Minaur’s former top-five record, is rarely given credit because fans more often associate success with deep grand slam runs.

Kyrgios did that in advancing to last year’s Wimbledon final, and boasts three other major quarter-finals on his resume, but de Minaur is on the precipice of doing something special himself.

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