Top seed Carlos Alcaraz was slated to play home favourite Australian no. 1 Alex de Minaur in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in Melbourne. It was touted to be a blockbuster of a contest with some pundits even giving an outside chance to de Minaur to upset Alcaraz’s applecart. And hence an interesting match was on the cards.
The quarter finals, however, just did not live up to the hype as Alcaraz virtually steamrolled Alex de Minaur, once he pocketed the first set.
The match began with Alcaraz racing away to a 3-0 lead, but de Minaur pulled it back to make it 3-3. Eventually, after an exchange of breaks again, the score levelled up at 5-5. Alcaraz held serve to make it 6-5 and then broke de Minaur to win the first set 7-5.
Alex de Minaur had his moments in the first set, breaking Alcaraz twice but could not sustain the pressure on the Spaniard, who wriggled out from tight spots with his heavy ground strokes and incredible returns of serve. The Australian gave it everything in the first set, even outsmarting the top seed at times, but still came short.
The second and third sets were all about Alcaraz. The resistance from de Minaur in the first set began to fade in the 2nd and 3rd as Alcaraz wrested the initiative from the Australian.
Alcaraz won the second set 6-2, and the third 6-1, in a show of sheer dominance and staggering tennis. Alex de Minaur was completely outplayed in the second and third sets as a particularly partisan crowd did their best to get behind their only Australian hope left in the tournament.
The statistics said it all. Alcaraz won 76% of the points on his first serve, while Alex de Minaur could muster only 59%. The figures were even more skewed for the second serve. Alcaraz won 58% of points on his second service while de Minaur was miserable at a lowly 36%. The Australian’s serve deserted him big time, when he needed it to fire.
The hopes of the Australian public were dashed as a beaming Alcaraz made it to his first semi-final at the Australian Open. He would be taking on the 3rd seed, the lanky German, Alexander Zverev, in which the Spaniard is expected to come through as well.
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