Australia’s top-ranked male player, Alex de Minaur has marched into the Australian Open quarterfinals, next up in world no. 1 Carlos Alcaraz.
World no. 6 de Minaur outclassed world no. 10 Alexander Bublik taking the match 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.
Bublik had gone into the match on a seven game win streak, including collecting the ATP 250 title in Hong Kong. In the Hong Kong final, Bublik had defeated world no. 7 Lorenzo Musetti.
In the opening set it was Bublik that struggled to land first serves, serving at just 47%. de Minaur made the most of his break point opportunity in the 10th game to wrap up the set.
In the second set Bublik upped his first serve percentage to 81% and de Minaur’s dropped to 50% yet de Minaur won that set 6-1. The key was that de Minaur had just two unforced errors to 13 from Bublik.
de Minaur broke early in the second set to take a 2-0 lead. The Australian broke again in the 6th to lead 5-1 before serving out the set.
de Minuar upped his first serve percentage to 81% in the third set and he had just one unforced error.
Bublik was staight away in trouble in the third set after dropping serve to love. The Australian raced to 4-0 before Bublik got on the board, that would be the only game he would win.
Bublik wasn’t able to earn a single break point throughout the match.
It was 23 winners to 36 unforced errors for Bublik and de Minaur had 19 winners and just 10 unforced errors.
“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.”
The big test awaits de Minaur in the quarterfinals. He goes into his match against Alcaraz with a 0-5 record, including three losses in 2025. The most recent match was at the ATP Finals in the round robin. Alcaraz took the match 7-6(5), 6-2.
de Minaur will have the crowd behind him, but will it be enough?
Visit the Australian Open tennis match centre for this match between Alex de Minaur and Alexander Bublik.
Also read – de Minaur Can’t Close the Gap to Alcaraz in Australian Open Quarterfinals
