Rampant De Minaur downs Pospisil to reach first slam quarter-final
The 21-year-old might just take some beating at this year’s US Open after he put together another superb performance to end the run of Pospisil in straight sets.
Avant l’US Open 2019, Alex de Minaur n’avait passé un troisième tour en Grand Chelem, en 9 tentatives. C’est chose faite pour la deuxième fois consécutive pour l’Australie, les deux fois à l’US Open. Notamment vainqueur de Karen Khachanov et de Richard Gasquet, le natif de Sydney a joué un très bon tennis pendant cette quinzaine et sa progression ne fait nulle doute. Il n’a rien pu faire face à Thiem en quarts de finale.
Australian Alex de Minaur is into the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam event for the first time after a convincing 7-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Vasek Pospisil at the US Open.
Aussie AUSSIE 🇦🇺
Like John Millman in 2018, @alexdeminaur is into the quarterfinals at the #USOpen pic.twitter.com/8EPiBmUoMo
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 7, 2020
The Canadian, who’d beaten Milos Raonic and Roberto Bautista Agut to reach the last 16, will rue four set points in the opening-set tiebreak that went begging as 21st seed De Minaur came from 6-2 down to take it 8-6.
From then on, it was a massive uphill battle for Pospisil, whose attempts to get to the net and come forward were thwarted more often than not by the speed of De Minaur around the court and the accuracy of his passing shots. De Minaur eased through the second and as Pospisil’s resistance waned, he wrapped up victory to set up a clash with second seed Dominic Thiem of Austria or No 16 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.
“The first set was crucial,” De Minaur said. “Just a few points going his way and then going mine. I got a little lucky. He’s a very tricky player, so aggressive, I know that if he is on, he’s going to blow me away. I just tried to keep playing my game.”
“I’m obviously very happy. At the end of the day, this is where I want to be, and this is where I truly believe I belong, second weeks of slams and going deep. I’m happy I’m finally at this stage. But nothing changes. Everything stays the same. Now I’ve got just another match awaiting for me. It is obviously the winner of Thiem and Felix. I have played both of them.”
“This running thing gets tiring”
Perhaps the fastest player on the Tour, De Minaur ran down everything and never seems to tire. It’s a game style that takes some doing, though, and De Minaur admitted that sometimes he would love to be a big-server.
“If I could definitely blast people off the court, then trust me, I would rather do that,” he said. “This running thing gets tiring, that’s for sure. Look, I’ve got to deal with what God gave me. He didn’t give me the best physique, I’m not as strong or as tall as other people so I have to find ways to win. That’s the way I win. Of course I take pride and I want that to be known, I want that to be my brand of tennis. And I want people in the locker room to know that if they’re going to beat me, they’re going to have to go through me.”
