Brilliant Sinner crushes De Minaur in quarter-final rout
The Italian made it 10 wins out of 10 over the Australian as he reached the semi-finals in Melbourne
@Julien Nouet
No one takes care of business these days like Jannik Sinner and the Italian was at his ruthless best as he crushed the hopes of Alex de Minaur and those of Australian fans, cruising to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 victory in a one-sided quarter-final at the Australian Open on Wednesday.
Sinner hit 27 winners and was totally dominant on serve, winning more than 80 percent of points on first and second serve, leaving De Minaur chasing shadows, clutching at straws.
“Today I was feeling everything. On days like this, when you break early in each set it’s a little bit easier. He’s an amazing player, amazing competitor. These kind of matches can go quickly, but they can go down quickly if my level goes down, but I’m very happy with the way I played.”
Sinner fully fit again after illness
In his fourth straight Grand Slam quarter-final, De Minaur came in with form and with rumours swirling around Melbourne Park that Sinner might be suffering from an illness, many felt the Australian might have a chance of upsetting the defending champion, especially in front of his home crowd.
But not a bit of it. Sinner broke early in each set and stormed home to set up a semi-final against Ben Shelton, the American who beat Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in four sets earlier in the day.
Sinner had won all nine of their previous battles but after struggling with an illness he didn’t want to give any details of in the previous round against Holger Rune, there were doubts about what level of tennis he would be able to produce.
Instead, it was De Minaur who looked spooked from the start, unsure whether to play his usual consistent baseline game or attack. When he stayed defensive, Sinner pounced on him, when he tried to attack, too often he made mistakes or Sinner just soaked up the power and turned it to his advantage.
The crowd on Rod Laver Arena tried to get behind their man but he didn’t give them anything to really get hold of and Sinner ran out a convincing winner, leaving De Minaur still chasing a first Grand Slam semi-final.
“When you’re young you recover quickly,” he said. “I really like to sleep so I was trying to recover in the right way.”
“I’m feeling much better”
In his press conference later, Sinner allayed any fears over his health, saying: “I feel like the illness has gone away now. I was feeling much, much better this morning. Playing in the evening helped a little bit. I had good rest throughout the last two nights. Yeah, now I’m feeling much better.”
Pressed on the topic, he gave a little more detail, explaining: “After the match against Holger [Rune] we made some blood test, you know, some tests. They were all solid, all good.
“So, you know, sometimes it can happen that you just feel not that well in that day. Today I woke up feeling much, much better. I told my team straightaway that, you know, I’m feeling good tonight. Obviously playing not with the heat helps you, especially when you are not feeling that well. But today I felt well already in the morning. I’m still not perfectly, but I’m not concerned in couple of days that I should be fine.
“But when I went on court, I felt great. This is just what my feelings were before the match. So when I went on court, I felt good with the pressure and everything. With the adrenaline, it helps a lot.”
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