Alex de Minaur felt like he had been “slapped across the face” after Jannik Sinner ousted the Sydney native 6-3 6-2 6-1 in under two hours in the quarterfinals at Australian Open 2025 on Wednesday night.
Tennis can do that.
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Instead of leaving AO 2025 basking in the phenomenal achievement of making four straight quarterfinals – something only four other Australian men have ever accomplished – a downcast De Minaur quickly pondered how he can one day get the better of the stoic Italian with the ruthless – on-court – streak.
Sinner upped his record to 10-0 against de Minaur, and has only lost one set.
No wonder De Minaur felt that Sinner was likely his “worst match-up” on tour.
“I'll survive,” said the No.8 seed. “I’ll keep improving. And if anything, I just need to sit with my team and figure out a way to hurt Jannik on the court.
“That's ultimately the way we've got to look at it and find different ways, because at the moment we don't have it. So back to the drawing board, like I've done my whole career.
“I still don't think this is my ceiling. I still think I’ve got more in the tank. So I'll be searching for that.”
That quest to improve is a mainstay of De Minaur’s DNA, one of the reasons why he cracked the top 10 despite not necessarily having weapons such as an overpowering serve or overwhelming forehand.
With such a record against him, the speedy De Minaur perhaps needed the rub of the green under the lights at Rod Laver Arena. In one way, he didn’t get it.
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Temperatures dropped considerably in Melbourne on Wednesday, not the sort of lively playing environment the 25-year-old, once again watched by mum Esther, hoped for.
“You try everything,” said De Minaur. “You bring every sort of different look that you can. But in these types of conditions where it's a little bit colder and you can't really get the ball out of his strike zone, he can just unload and not miss. It's tough.
“I think if we're playing middle of the day on a stupidly hot day, then that's when you can see some errors come out, and that's when you probably see Jannik not play at his best.
“But conditions like today, it's tough to rattle him at all.”
One of those sizzling Melbourne days came on Monday, when Sinner admitted to feeling dizzy in a day-session victory against Holger Rune.
It wasn’t the first time De Minaur encountered a behemoth at Melbourne Park.
In 2019, Rafael Nadal topped him in straight sets, while Novak Djokovic relinquished five games against him in 2023.
“I would have loved to do more today, but this is what happens sometimes in tennis,” said De Minaur, as he weighed up the good and bad from his fortnight.
“The negative is after playing some great tennis on home soil and gaining so much, you feel like you just have been slapped across the face to finish like that.”
One positive was handling the weight of home expectation, since De Minaur lived up to his seeding as he competed at AO 2025 as the highest-ranked Australian in either singles draw.
“I guess the other positive is it's not the first time that I've felt that,” he added with humour. “I felt the same thing when I played Novak a couple of years ago.”
History tells us that De Minaur shouldn’t be discounted in tallying wins against Sinner in the future.
The very same Sinner, for example, lost his first six matches against Daniil Medvedev. He now leads 8-7.
And with an eye on going all the way at a Grand Slam, De Minaur rightfully pointed out that he might not necessarily need to beat Sinner en route.
“If I'm in a different side of the draw, different little section, then who knows? I genuinely think I'm going to give myself opportunities, and I don't think my peak is making quarterfinals in a Slam,” he said.
“I see other players that have made it further, have made semis, have made finals, and I do believe that I can be amongst them, right?
“If they have been able to accomplish that, then why not me?”