Alex de Minaur has taken another great step towards becoming the first home player to win the Australian Open since Mark Edmondson held up the trophy in 1977.
Maybe today wasn’t my best level, but I still know that I’ve got that in the bag. Hopefully the next match I can show that. Alex de Minaur
The opposition though, is getting stronger but he remains unconcerned as he reached the fourth round of the season’s first major championship with a comfortable straight sets victory over Italian Flavio Cobolli.
His win means he has reached the last 16 for the third time and draws closer to Lleyton Hewitt’s achievement of five appearances at that stage, the last time in 2012.
But while his 6-3 6-3 6-1 looked comfortable – it took seven-minutes over two hours – he was not satisfied with his performance.
“First of all, I’ll try to get a little bit better and beat my personal best, get to a quarter final,” De Minaur, the 10th seed, explained in his press conference.
“That’s the first step. I’ve made a couple fourth rounds in the past. I maybe have gotten to that point and not played the type of match I wanted to. I’m hoping I can break that barrier and go one further.
“Look, I’m not too unsatisfied with the performance today. Ultimately, I won in straight sets. I won playing some decent tennis. I think probably just playing on a different court today made it a little bit tricky for me to find my footing and my timing in certain shots.
“That’s probably the slight thing. I have been playing some great tennis. Maybe today wasn’t my best level, but I still know that I’ve got that in the bag. Hopefully the next match I can show that.”
And the level of his opponents will vastly increase over the next few rounds and, if he gets through the next round, the fifth seeded Andrey Rublev awaits.
It has been noted he hasn’t yet played on the Rod Laver Arena but that could well change for this match up.
When that was pointed out to him he replied: “I would love to play on RLA. Obviously that prime time slot is pretty special, and you’ve got to earn it.
“If the organizers decide to put me there, then I’ll be happy to play on it. But, yeah, ultimately doesn’t really matter when I play, whether I play first match, whether I play last.
“Whether I play on RLA or Court 27, I’m still going to be the same. I’m still going to walk out there and enjoy it and give it 150%.”
Reflecting on his next opponent who beat Sebastian Korda 6-2 7-6(6) 6-4, he added: “Yeah, against Rublev, we’ve played a few times over the years. We’ve also played at different stages of our careers.
“Last year I think we played twice. I got him in Rotterdam, and he got me at the end of the year in Bercy. Both indoors. Both kind of solid conditions. Both tight matches.
“Against Andrey, he’s got some immense firepower, and his forehand is deadly. It’s basically do your best to not allow him to hit forehands, especially from the middle of the court. That will probably be the game plan against him.”
And if he does succeed in reaching the quarter finals for the first time, it will be either Jannik Sinner or Karen Khachanov who will be waiting for him.
Italy’s Sinner defeated Argentina’s Sebastain Baez 6-0 6-1 6-3 while Russia’s Khachamov took out his compatriot Tomas Machac 6-4 7-6(4) 4-6 7-6(3) in, at three hours 24-minutes, what was the second longest match of the day!
Andrey Rublev will provide strong opposition
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
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