The excitement is building in Melbourne after Aussie fan favourite Alex de Minaur played another watertight match to get a top-10 win over the in-form, dangerous and downright unpredictable Alexander Bublik on his way to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the second successive year.
In truth, the Kazakh world No.10 – who until Sunday hadn’t lost a match all year – couldn’t find his best tennis on his Rod Laver Arena debut, with De Minaur cruising through a surprisingly one-sided match 6-4 6-1 6-1.
De Minaur made the most of Bublik’s struggles on first serve early on, was efficient on his own serve throughout, and was dominant during the baseline exchanges, committing just 10 unforced errors during an hour and 32 minutes.
The world No.6, who could become the first Australian men’s singles champion at the Melbourne major since Mark Edmondson in 1976, next faces world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz, who beat Tommy Paul earlier on Sunday.
“Bublik is a hell of a player, he’s got so much firepower and I lost to him the last couple of times so I made sure I was ready to go from the first point till the last,” De Minaur told a packed arena afterwards.
“I was locked in. It was all about neutralising his big groundstrokes and trying to get him on the move, and it all kind of worked perfectly today.
“I was definitely thinking about the last two matches I played against him,” admitted the Aussie, who finished second-best when they played twice in Paris last year, at Roland-Garros and again at the Masters 1000 event later in the year.
“The last two matches I’ve played I’ve hit the ball extremely well. I’m super pleased with my level, I feel like I’m doing everything I want on the court.”
During a first set that took a while to come to life, it was Bublik who cracked first when he was serving at 4-5.
De Minaur connected with an aggressive return to put the Kazakhstani in bother at 15-30, and a solid baseline rally earned the home favourite two set points at 15-40.
Bublik threw in his fastest ace of the evening to save the first, but then double faulted and in a flash the first set was done. Bublik had made only 47 per cent of his first serves.
The bad news kept coming for Bublik, who reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal in Paris last spring. Two loose forehands from 30-all allowed De Minaur to break for a second time, and he held without any fuss to build a comfortable set and 3-0 lead.
De Minaur’s dominance during the baseline rallies meant the scoreboard was starting to look one-sided. ‘Demon’ even had a chance for a double break in the fourth game of the set before Bublik pulled himself together just in time.
The ball kept coming back though, and Bublik kept missing as the set wore on, De Minaur breaking again to go ahead 5-1 when Bublik threw in his third double fault of the evening.
After just 64 minutes, the Australian was in complete control up two sets to love.
With De Minaur already an early break up in the third, the first point of game three illustrated the nature and size of the problem Bublik faced.
The world No.10 hit a perfect drop shot – De Minaur tracked it down – then played an attempted ‘tweener’ pass, but the lightning-fast Aussie was again ready and waiting to put away the volley. All Bublik could do was laugh.
A trademark underarm serve soon followed, then the point of the match – this time finished with a Bublik angled volley – but none of his usual tricks could throw De Minaur off track.
When Bublik missed another drop shot on break point in the third game of the set, he was a double break down and the contest was over.
De Minaur will come back on Tuesday to try for a first-ever win against the six-time major champion Alcaraz.
“That’s gonna be a big one,” he said.
“I’m going to have to come out here all guns blazing. I’m excited for a battle against Carlitos.”