Tennis: Demon hype or more Australian Open deception?
Alex de Minaur is flying high right now after defeating Novak Djokovic, but even he remembers how last summer ended at Melbourne Park.
I’ve seen this movie before. Alex de Minaur is the toast of the town. Flavour of the month. He’s knocked off a big gun at the United Cup and everyone’s honking like geese about the young fella winning the Australian Open.
Then when we get to the business end of the tournament, he goes down the gurgler.
Let’s calm the farm. His record at majors is terrible until further notice.
“Alex de Minaur will enter the Australian Open as one of its hottest favourites,” said one breathless report following his 6-4 6-4 shellacking of his old mate Novak Djokovic, who isn’t a mate at all, as evidenced by their frosty handshake at the net in Perth.
De Minaur’s performance was scintillating and he deserves every bouquet tossed his way for beating the king of groundstroke swing. But he ain’t one of the hottest Open favourites. I’d have him as a top-12 hope. At number 12.
The Open is a different beast from the United Cup. Come January 14 at Melbourne Park, Djokovic will be, too.
All power to de Minaur’s arm, hands, feet, heart, soul, mind, forehand, backhand, volleys, half-volleys, body and spirit. It’s a nonsense to suggest there’s no bias in a press box and I’ll be pumping a fist for him at the Open.
He’s thrilling to watch, both exhilarating and endearing, swinging out of his shoes, charging the net like a soldier sprinting from the trenches. To hell with the consequences and the bullets coming his way. Good luck to all concerned. It’s just that we’ve been down this road a few times. It’s led nowhere. Recently. Constantly.
We’ve built hype that’s turned into tripe. A year ago, de Minaur beat Rafael Nadal in the United Cup. The geese honked. One of the Australian Open’s hottest favourites! He’ll get up for the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup! Honk! Honk! Honk! He reached the fourth round but was annihilated in straight sets by Djokovic. Which mirrored 2022, another honkingly impressive build-up, but another resounding fourth-round defeat, in straight sets again, to Jannik Sinner.
Which continued his majors trend of being a top-12 performer. At No 12 or thereabouts. The cold, hard, sobering fact is that in 25 slam appearances, he’s reached only one quarter-final. That’s below par. A million miles from winning one.
Still, you’re going all right when you beat Djokovic four-and-four. It was such a slap on the wrist that it gave Djokovic a sore one. The result ended the Serb’’s 43-match winning streak in Australia, although he did have a significant loss in 2022 to Alex Hawke, the Immigration Minister who cancelled his visa on the grounds he might get everybody killed if he played while unvaccinated.
“Novak is an unbelievable competitor and what he’s done for the sport is pretty special. It feels amazing,” de Minaur said.
“It comes from a lot of people not believing in me. I’m just here to prove a lot of people wrong, try to keep on getting better.
“Ultimately, I’m never going to be the biggest or strongest guy, so I’ve got to adapt … I’m glad I was able to bring this level. When you go against Novak you’ve just got to go out there, try to enjoy it, back yourself and no matter what, just keep fighting until the end.”
When Ajla Tomljanovic thrashed Serbia’s Natalija Stevanovic 6-1 6-1 in Perth, Australia was into Saturday’s United Cup semi-finals in Sydney. Opposition TBC.
Djokovic’s unceremonious defeat might be the best thing for him. Losing to a rival he has little time for – de Minaur was unsympathetic about the Serb’s defeat to Hawke – will ensure he puts his head down and backside up between now and the Open. The bear has been poked. A wrist injury is a concern but last year, a hamstring problem didn’t stop him. Only made him work harder and smarter. He won the Open.
A slap on the wrist, a sore wrist - the true hot favourites for the Open remain Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Sinner and maybe Nadal. Then the rest.
Because while de Minaur is flying high right now, even he remembers how last summer ended at the Open. He was the toast. “It couldn’t get any worse, I guess,” he recalled of his abrupt departure from Rod Laver Arena.
The Melbourne-bound Djokovic said of his injury: “The more I’m playing, it’s getting worse. You know, it did have quite an impact, particularly on the forehand and serve. But again, I don’t want to be spending too much time talking about it and taking away credit for the victory from de Minaur. I mean, he was just very solid, as he always is, and congrats to him and to the Australian team. It is what it is for us. I guess we move on … with my thoughts on Melbourne. I think I’ll be okay, to be honest.”
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