MELBOURNE :Alex De Minaur kept the home flag flying at the Australian Open as he beat rising American Alex Michelsen 6-0 7-6(5) 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time on Monday.
The 25-year-old has now reached the last eight at every Grand Slam and will face top seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner for a place in the semis.
Eighth seed De Minaur threatened to run away with the night match on Rod Laver Arena after winning the opening eight games but was then made to scrap as the powerful Michelsen recovered from a lacklustre start.
Michelsen, 20, surged back and was piling on the pressure to lead 5-4 in the second set tiebreak but De Minaur escaped with an inspired passing shot helping him forge a two-set lead.
The errors returned to the 20-year-old Michelsen’s game in the third set as De Minaur calmly moved 5-3 ahead. Just as when he served for the second set, De Minaur wobbled and had to save a break point when serving for the match, but he got the job done to the delight of the home fans.
“This means the world, I love you guys,” De Minaur, who has now reached the quarter-finals of the last four Grand Slams, said on court.
“There is nothing I want more than to play well here in Australia. Glad I finally made it to the quarter-finals here but yeah let’s go for bigger and better things, come on!”
Michelsen is one a new generation of fearless youngsters in the men’s game and had already beaten 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and 19th seed Karen Khachanov en route to the last 16.
But his hopes of joining fellow Americans Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton in the quarter-finals were undermined by a terrible start that gifted De Minaur the opening set.
De Minaur led 6-0 2-0 and had points for a double break in the second set before Michelsen came to life.
He was almost made to pay for failing to keep his opponent under wraps when he served a double fault to allow Michelsen to break back for 5-5 in the second set.
Michelsen looked increasingly dangerous but will rue missing an easy volley when 2-1 ahead in the tiebreak and then failing to win a rally he dominated at 5-4 when De Minaur hooked a forehand winner across him at the net.
De Minaur served an ace to reach set point and a Michelsen error then gave him a two-set lead.
The Australian, cheered on by fiance Katie Boulter, stayed composed in the third set and a forehand winner earned him the decisive service break in the sixth game.
“I had my opportunities in the second set to maybe run away with that one as well but he raised his level and made it a tough match. That second set was pivotal,” De Minaur said.
If he is to maintain Australia’s hopes of a first male champion since Mark Edmondson in 1976 he will have to get past tournament favourite Sinner next.
The omens are not good for him to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final though as he has lost all of his previous clashes against Italian Sinner.
“I’m looking forward to it, I’m going to have to do something that I haven’t done before but why not start here,” De Minaur said.
