Aussie Alex De Minaur’s giant-killing run comes to end at hands of Tomas Berdych

YOUNG Aussie gun Alex De Minaur’s giant-killing run has come to an end at the hands of an old-stager in Tomas Berdych at the Australian Open, proving it’s not time for a changing of the guard just yet.

Alex De Minaur gave his all against Tomas Berdych. Picture: Mark Stewart

IT WAS late in the third set when one member of Alex De Minaur’s parochial cheersquad let out an audible bake in the direction of Tomas Berdych.

“You can’t stop the future,” the man in green cried out through the silence.

No, you can’t.

And on the evidence of his breathtaking start to 2018, teenage sensation De Minaur will soon have his day.

But right now, Berdych is staying in control of his own destiny.

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Alex De Minaur gave his all against Tomas Berdych. Picture: Mark Stewart

And, on some limited glimpses during his four-set triumph over the Aussie favourite, Berdych also appears capable of remaining a considerable factor in the present on a men’s tour where 30-plus appears to be the new mid-20s.

So De Minaur’s sizzling summer is over, falling in the first round to 19th seeded Berdych 6-3 3-6 6-0 6-1 on a jam-packed Hisense Arena.

But while he may have fallen short of his second round appearance at last year’s Open, the strides 18-year-old De Minaur has experienced were there for all to see — if we didn’t already know it on the back of his stunning runs to the semi-finals in Brisbane and the final at the Sydney International.

Taking on a similarly big-hitting seed in Sam Querrey in the second round last year, De Minaur threw punches at the American in a first set that needed a tiebreak to settle before dropping his bundle 6-0 6-1 in the last two sets.

And while it was an eerily similar scenario that unfolded in sets three and four last night, De Minaur’s impressive second set fightback still left an imprint.

Berdych, playing just his second competitive match since returning from a back injury that cut short his 2017 season in October, ran hot in the first set, bombarding his younger opponent with consistent 200km/h first serves, first serves which he landed 79 per cent of the time and won points off 94 per cent of the time when he did.

But rather than retreat, De Minaur fought fire with fire in the second set, breaking immediately before holding sway to level things up at a set all.

As Nick Kyrgios can attest, Hisense in the early stages of an Open is as close to a Davis Cup atmosphere as a local hope can dream of getting anywhere around the world.

And the near 10,000-strong crowd was in full voice heading into the third, with all the momentum behind the Aussie world No.127

As one American could be heard commenting quietly in the crowd, “no wonder the Aussies love playing here”.

But Berdych hasn’t been as high as No.4 in the world for nothing.

And, when the Czech star needed to dig in, he dug in.

Just as he did in his power-packed opening set, Berdych took the crowd out of play with a composed display throughout the third.

And by the fourth — just the second time De Minaur has gone this far in a match — there was only ever going to be one winner.

But De Minaur, after the January he has had, will depart Australia anything but a loser.

Tomas Berdych showed there was plenty of fight in the old dog. Picture: AFP

Declaring he had no regrets from his Australian Open odyssey, De Minaur insisted he remained true to his vow of “leaving it all out on the court” against his higher-ranked opponent.

And after a whirlwind month, De Minaur revealed his 2018 schedule had been thrown up in the air after his ranking skyrocketed on the back of his performances in Brisbane and Sydney.

“That’s something I’m going to have to sit with my team and go through my schedule, see what’s the best tournaments for me, what looks right,” De Minaur said.

“It’s just been crazy. Extremely proud of what I’ve been able to do the last couple of weeks. Even today, I try to base myself on leaving it out on court every time I step on it. That’s what I did.

“It was crazy to have all the support I’ve had, as well. I mean, playing on Hisense Arena in front of a packed crowd, they’re all behind you pretty much every single point, it’s just something special. I’m just so thankful for that.

“These couple of weeks now have made me realise that I’ve got the level, and now I’ve just got to maintain it day after day.

“That’s something I’ve been really proud of myself throughout the whole Australian summer. I’ve been able to back up good matches. I don’t think I’ve had a bad match this summer.”

Berdych said he enjoyed the parochial crowd in support of De Minaur on Hisense and said, after taking an early leave pass from 2017 to recover from his back injury, he felt he had had as good an off-season preparation as ever.

Generation not quite next: Tomas Berdych and Alex De Minaur cross paths.

The Czech star liked what he saw from De Minaur, but has one piece of advice for the Aussie young gun as he makes his way on the men’s tour.

“He had a great summer, was playing really well, especially for his age,” Berdych said.

“But particularly for my tennis, I have to say that right now he is still in the stage where he’s very solid for his age but he still needs to get stronger and start to hit the ball faster to cause more damage.

“Because against a player like me, who likes to play aggressive, the pace is still not enough.

“He’s still very solid and I can see that (against) the players who don’t really have that fast a game he can be very dangerous, already now.

“I think he has a very good future ahead of him.

“It’s tough to say for him whether it was that combination of playing a lot of matches (that wore him down), but he’s a big fighter and he was showing that even today.

“But I just think the match-up of my game and his game was not ideal for him.”