Alex de Minaur has a golden chance to break through at the US Open
Alex de Minaur’s path to a maiden grand slam semi-final at the US Open has
opened up, but he must first overcome world No.435 Leandro Riedi.
For context, de minaur’s five quarter-final foes at majors were: world
No.3 Dominic Thiem (2020 US Open), world No.4 Zverev (2024
Roland-Garros), world No.2 Djokovic (2024 Wimbledon), world No.25
Jack Draper (2024 US Open), and world No.1 Sinner (2025 Australian
open).
Draper’s ranking stands out, but
de Minaur was physically compromised that New York day
by a rare hip setback that sidelined him for months beforehand, and
afterwards.
Credit: Getty Images
The big-hitting Brit also became a top-five player this year before
relenting to his own injury.
there are zero excuses this time for “Demon”.
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For all the respectful words de Minaur had for Riedi, the tour battler
is a dream opponent, notably this late in the tournament – and
much preferred to seeded rivals Karen Khachanov and Francisco
Cerundolo, both of whom suffered upset second-round defeats.
Like de Minaur, 15th-ranked Rublev is a many-times major
quarter-finalist who has never cleared that hurdle. They played a
five-set epic in the fourth round of last year’s australian Open that
the Russian won.
De Minaur and Rublev have split their eight career meetings, and both
will view playing the other as a huge possibility.
Simultaneously occurring, Auger-Aliassime is a former world No.6 who made the 2021 US
Open semi-finals, and also the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the
Australian Open either side of that, but is now ranked No.27 and has
largely disappointed since.
He leads de Minaur 2-1 head-to-head,but the Australian won their
only clash after 2022.
De Minaur still must account for Riedi,and neither Rublev nor
Auger-Aliassime will be easy – far from it – but a career-defining
few days have arrived for the country’s best men’s player since
lleyton Hewitt.
Credit: AP
By placing himself repeatedly in the mix with an outstanding track
record of consistency, he has earned himself some luck with the draw.
However, failing to deliver will, fairly or not, effectively throw de
Minaur to the lions, who in this analogy are the critics who have
long doubted him, and his ceiling as a player.
His outward disappointment at
having Djokovic on the ropes and letting him escape
in their fourth-round clash at Wimbledon this year was evidence that
he wants and expects more, too.
On the flip side, progressing to a maiden major semi-final would be
another fillip for a player who once got stuck in the third round at
the slams, then later the fourth round, but through incremental
improvements continues to edge closer to the top.
De Minaur would also get his wish of a primetime slot on the world’s
biggest tennis arena, Arthur Ashe Stadium, after calling his repeat
scheduling away from the US open’s three major courts “a
head-scratcher”.
On every measure, his time is now.
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“The way I go about my things is to let the tennis do the talking, and
I take a lot of pride in that,” de Minaur said. “Hopefully, I can be
hear in New York for much, much longer. But for me, this was the
first job done. Now, it’s onto the second week, which I’m quite
excited for.”
De Minaur’s fourth-round clash with Riedi is scheduled to start on
Tuesday at 1am AEST on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
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