‘Insane’: De Minaur makes history in mind-blowing performance

Aussie Alex de Minaur is the talk of the tennis world right now after an act of total insanity that has shattered records.

Alex de Minaur has sent shockwaves around the tennis world with an insane double-bagel of Grigor Dimitrov at the Monte Carlo Masters on Friday night.

The Australian was at his ruthless best as he demolished the former world No. 3 6-0 6-0 in just 45 minutes.

The “Demon” shattered records with the historic blood bath to set up a semi-final with Italian Lorenzo Musetti.

Most notably, de Minaur is now just two wins away from becoming the first Australian to be ranked inside the top five on the ATP Tour since Lleyton Hewitt, who first achieved the feat in 2001.

The match was so one-sided that Dimitrov was booed by the crowd as he left the court.

The Bulgarian mustered just one winner in total, made 23 unforced errors and won only five points in the second set.

De Minaur took full advantage and left tennis statisticians reaching for their record books.

He dropped only 15 of the 63 points played.

Alex de Minaur is a cheat code. Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP.

According to OptaAce, de Minaur it the first player since the format’s introduction in 1990 to win an ATP Masters 1000 match from quarter-finals and onwards with a 6-0 6-0 scoreline.

The leading stats service also reported de Minaur is the first Australian to reach the semi-finals at the Monte Carlo Masters since John Alexander in 1979.

Leading tennis journalist Jose Margado was one of many blow away by the performance.

“What the hell did I just watch,” he posted on X.

The popular Tennis Letter X profile posted simply: “Wow”.

De Minaur himself conceded the result was “crazy”.

When asked if he knew he’d never recorded a 6-0 6-0 win inn his career, he responded: “I did know that. I know the only time I ever lost 6-0 6-0 myself was to Tommy Paul in the semifinals of US Open juniors. It’s pretty crazy.”

De Minaur is well on track to feature in the ATP Tour season-ending finals and has now become the first player to chalk up 20 wins on the tour this year.

On the other side of the draw, Carlos Alcaraz battled back from a set down to beat French rising star Arthur Fils in a gripping quarter-final.

Alex de Minaur was on another planet. Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images.

The four-time Grand Slam champion, targeting his first Masters title since winning in Indian Wells last year, saved three break points in the 11th game of the second set en route to a dramatic 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory.

“I think his level is high right now and he puts a lot of pressure on his opponents,” Alcaraz said of his beaten opponent.

“Today I could feel it but in some moments he just made a few mistakes and I tried to make the most of those points and wait for my chances.”

He will face unseeded fellow Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Saturday for a place in the final.

Alcaraz’s only title this season remains the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam in February but he appears to be enjoying his return to clay.

The 20-year-old Fils, seeded 12th, suffered a third successive quarter-final loss at Masters events this season after going out in the last eight at Indian Wells and the Miami Open.

Alcaraz is a strong favourite to lift the title after early exits for Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev, at an event where he had lost his only previous match in 2022.

He showed all of his battling qualities to get the better of Fils, in what is likely to have been their first meeting of many.

Earlier, Fokina cruised into the semi-finals with a dominant victory over Alexei Popyrin.

World number 42 Fokina, who was runner-up at the tournament in 2022 to Stefanos Tsitsipas, swatted aside Australia’s Popyrin 6-3, 6-2 in the last eight.

Fokina was full of confidence after dumping out British fifth seed Jack Draper in the last 16 and put on another accomplished display.

— with AFP