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Alex De Minaur

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2025 Australian Open Day 11: Alex De Minaur has everything to be proud of as his home campaign now over after the QF with Jannik Sinner off to the last 4 in straight sets

by Sports Benches

After a few goes of making playing a few consecutive Round of 16s before being finally able to play in a home QF, Alex De Minaur’s run here at Rod Laver Arena are now over unfortunately tonight at the hands of defending champion Jannik Sinner in straight sets – 6-3, 6-2 and 6-1.

That means the Italian in Sinner will continue his title defense ahead of his next match in the semis this Friday v Ben Shelton from the USA amid illness concerns as of late but he will still want to go all the way with another Finals opportunity up for grabs & the winner of that next match will go on to either take on the winner of that other semi between Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev.

First of all, ‘The Demon’ as we always call it as Alex’s nickname had some brilliant early moments right from the very start.

It’s just a shame he threw things away at times that could’ve mean business to throw the pressure back at Sinner & try to map things out on his own, especially when this opponent here is someone he couldn’t beat over the last few times including the last two Davis Cup Finals yearly tournaments – and yet Sinner got the better execution than him. 

We also wish his fiancé Katie Boulter (Great Britain) was cheering on by his side when his mother Esther was holding the Aussie flag with pride once again. But as Todd Woodbridge said during commentary, she was unable to attend in-person this time around unlike the last two of his matches, as she has a match to prepare on her own over the next few days or at the start of next week. 

I’m sure we are all disappointed to see him being eliminated even with no Katie on his corner. But again, there’s every good moment we can look back from start to finish for Alex at this year’s Australian Open, and the best part about Alex’s 2025 campaign here is that every round of his matches were all played at the RLA.

I mean, a full house with full Aussie support alongside his explosive skillsets of grand slam brilliance that we can all be proud of as Tennis/Sports fans! How good!

Not only that, there’s still more to come from Alex throughout the course of 2025 as well. I see the early round Davis Cup Qualifiers are happening next weekend where Australia will fly over to Sweden as their first opponent away from home. 

What else? Oh the other three grand slams where he made the last few QFs too & sure he will look to play his ever first semi-final there either way – you never know what will come if he does win that next match towards a shot in the Final.

So there you have it, while there’s no Aussies left in either singles draw or even doubles other than the mixed doubles category (an all-Aussie contest btw) – there’s always the two must-match semi-final days across tomorrow night for the women and throughout Friday for the men before all champions will be crowned this weekend.

Here’s the list below:

  • Ayrna Sabalenka v Paula Badosa
  • Madison Keys v Iga Swiatek
  • Novak Djokovic v Alexander Zverev
  • Ben Shelton v Jannik Sinner

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2025 Australian Open Day 9: Alex De Minaur now a first-time Quarter-Finalist on home soil following his straight sets win over American Alex Michelsen

by Sports Benches

The winner of the Alex final 4th Round match last night goes to our own Alex De Minaur over American Alex Michelsen in straight sets 0-6, 6-7 with 5-7 tiebreak and 3-6 at Rod Laver Arena – the place he’s only been playing there through his whole 2025 Australian Open run so far.

For Michelsen, it’s been great seeing the best of him up until this point having made a name himself at only 20 through upset wins over Stefanos Tsitsipas (1R) & Karen Khachanov (3R). Yes, it wasn’t his day when he lacked a couple of areas to tidy up his game but surely there’s a lot more to come from him soon throughout 2025.

Now bring on reigning champion Jannik Sinner from Italy for Wednesday night’s Quarter-Final no matter what happens with the result, especially when Sinner has always been the better player than him with 2 x grand slam championships on hand. Well, he may be the current and future of men’s world tennis but that doesn’t mean ‘The Demon’ can’t do well or at least be at his best, especially when playing in front of his home supporters.

This is what we want for Alex to be on the front foot off the back of his tremendous start last night along with the bull of a fighter like we saw during that intense 2nd stage encounter all the way to that tiebreak & he knows what to do to sign things off when the match goes his way. 

Nothing more, nothing less – that’s all.

Our Aussie support needs him and he needs them to cheer him up, especially if his next opponent will be Sinner as miracles tend to happen too amongst other players so far in this tournament.

Over to you Alex now for his first Australian Open QF tomorrow night thanks to his brilliant form so far at the RLA including a string of recent grand slam Quarter-Final appearances outside of Melbourne Park last season.

In the meantime, what a win and what a night it was last night with his mother Esther in attendance who witnessed so much joy of seeing his son finally able to play in a home QF grand slam for the first time as these are things you love to see. Not only that, here’s some more Katie & Alex together in action where Katie was cheering on once again by his side as a spectator.

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2025 Australian Open Tennis Day 7: Alex De Minaur marches his way into the 4th round for the 4th straight year following his four-set win v Francisco Cerundolo

by Sports Benches

After nearly four hours through the course of this entire afternoon, Alex De Minaur is still in it with the men’s singles race as the lone Aussie standing at the famed RLA thanks to his 3rd round win over Francisco Cerundolo from Argentina in the best of four sets – 7-5, 6-7 (3-7 tie), 3-6 & 3-6.

It’s been a sigh of relief for Alex to get past the Argentine who has been a tough opponent for him at times having lost the opening set.  But boy, he’s been ever so strong & persistent in the long runs, especially when he slapped his thighs as his lucky charm to keep himself moving by covering lots of ground along the way. 

Although not only Alex needs to better get himself ahead early but he would have to finish well as best as he possible can because his next opponent will be a rising wonderkid in town who hails from the US & has been making waves so far at only the age of 20 – his name is Alex Michelsen.

Yes, he may have won against Michelsen twice last year but still he’s a completely different player on another level now.

So yeah, it’s game on between the Demon and another US Tennis wonderkid. 

Whoever wins this next round will be expected to go up against men’s defending champion Jannik Sinner (Italy) unless someone else shockingly eliminates him in the process but we are sure to live with that as we know what was like when De Minaur previously faced the World No.1 many times before with extreme difficulty. 

If he’s going to face the Italian again, then our strong Aussie support would do it to keep him keep on churning in home turf, having supported him well today and they are sure to continue cheering on his brilliant journey all on the one place so far at RLA, and that includes his fiancé & British tennis star Katie Boulter by his side!

Super Saturday continues to live on through the night before the Round of 16 portion starts during midday tomorrow.

Since fellow Briton Emma Raducanu has been blown away real fast by one of the world’s top players in Iga Swiatek who still has a point to prove other than being the Queen of Roland Garros, there’s still a hunch of US players to look out for between now & the 2nd week. There’s like 2023 US Open winner Coco Gauff, Emma Navarro and either one of Madison Keys or the female version of Daniil Medvedev in 2022 AO runner-up Danielle Collins.

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2025 Australian Open Day 5, Round 2: Alex De Minaur on song once again at Rod Laver Arena but Katie Boulter unlucky in her own match at the final set decider

by Sports Benches

Yes, it was another super Alex De Minaur day of Tennis in the 2025 Australian Open R2 albeit during the early afternoon v Tristan Boyer from the USA smoothly and effectively also in straight sets & also at the Rod Laver Arena (2-6, 4-6 and 3-6).

We’ve saw a bit of Alex taking his time there right from the beginning but he knows what to do under pressure as if he’s on the front foot and he’s done that really well by moving onto the third round this Saturday this time against 31st seed Francisco Cerundolo from Argentina.

Looking at his next opponent, he only did well just outside the Quarter-Finals back-to-back on clay at the Roland Garros & has won the Croatian Open a few weeks later last June. But that’s just it really and let’s hope Alex can keep his guard going into Monday’s Round of 16 if he wins it & hopefully earn his first ever AO Quarter-Final either against young American Alex Mickelsen, who just defeated James McCabe, or familiar AO specialist in Karen Khachanov (Russia). All he has to do is take one step at a time and the looming threat can go away under his own eyes.

Congratulations to the Demon once again as so far, so good & who knows if he will get another headline booking at RLA yet again – we shall find out on Day 6 during Super Saturday, should be a beauty!

Other than that, his fiancé Katie Boulter from Leicester in Great Britain saw her AO singles campaign come to an end unfortunately a little later by Veronika Kudermetova – even though she was so close in the first set via tiebreak & found her way back in the 2nd, but got taken away at the deciding end of the match.

What we do know though that she still did her best to fire back to her opponent as our Aussie and British fans were right behind Katie to get this job done. But again, can’t help when Kudermetova managed to pull off really quickly as if it was a final set drag race & the Russian turned out to the quickest than we thought – final score was 7-6 with 6-3 tiebreaker, 2-6, 6-2. 

Such a bummer because had Katie won instead then she would’ve got a great opportunity to play in the 4th round & that next round she was hoping to play against was Beatriz Haddad Maia from Brazil.

So yeah, sad not to see her progress to Saturday’s 3rd Round & looks like there’s no other Aussies left now that Destanee Aiava has been eliminated by 2022 AO runner-up Danielle Collins, as Katie may not be playing doubles but she will 100% be there to see her fiancé play by his side on what is going to be Alex’s biggest campaign up to date, especially at home.

For now, there’s Aleksandar Vukic we need to keep an eye on who could be the one to end Jack Draper’s good record of eliminating Aussies when it comes to his Ashes of Grand Slam Tennis. Don’t forget he’s the one of the two Aussies still in the men’s singles race alongside Alex with Tristan Schoolkate just eliminated by defending champion Jannik Sinner despite his good start & Sinner was just too good.

Can Vukic finally succeed where others failed? We shall find out to prevent Jack Draper’s 3-0 clean sweep at Margaret Court Arena tomorrow night.

And if you want more Alex x Katie, check out their funny appearance together on Andy Lee’s The Hundred quiz show segment dedicated for the annual AO the other day – didn’t know Katie thought that Aussies had less shark attacks of 4% compared to the rest of us at 59% including Alex himself who thinks it’s 81%. Speaking of that percentage they’ve both answered, looks like their own love relationship speaks for itself compared to McLaren in Formula 1 with No.4 representing Katie’s country in Lando Norris while the other No.81 is currently driven by another of our Aussie drivers with the one and only Oscar Piastri.

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2025 Australian Open: Alex De Minaur and Katie Boulter off to their own good starts as the three-day opening round becomes back-to-back next rounds from today

by Sports Benches

So there you have it, it was a really top and lovely day yesterday for those who have been keeping an eye on one of the most power couples of world Tennis and also soon to be husband and wives too – our own Alex De Minaur and Katie Boulter from Great Britain in Leicester.

De Minaur absolutely too good thanks to a flying start by writing off the looming threat his that first round opponent was about to come up with against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp in straight sets (1-6, 5-7 & 4-6). Looking at that Dutchman when some people has been talking up about him, it seems that he did do well at the US Open last year through to the third round but so far played in a Quarter-Final at the same place once back in 2021 – not much of a shock there to kick the Demon out. But hey, at least, De Minaur was the better player we know with still a long way to go if he was going to play his first Quarter-Final on home soil – very important to get behind him all along as a huge Australian Sports and Tennis fan.

Next up, American Tristan Boyer tomorrow rolling onto Round 2 as so far, so good to kickstart his journey on home crowd at the famed Rod Laver Arena showpiece.

Not only De Minaur was up and flying, his fiance Katie Boulter also off to a great start also at the same time last night, even though she had to overcome a 2nd set loss to shut down Canadian Rebecca Marino (4-6, 6-3 and 5-7). It was also sweet seeing De Minaur rushing his way straight following his own mach from RLA to the one of the show court venues to cheer her on by the way.

Yes, her journey looks a bit different to her loved one but she has been improving though in recent months, especially at WTA events plus the team tournaments for her country as we speak. Entering the 2025 AO as the 22nd seed with ranked No.23 in singles is such a huge reward for her to justify also going into tomorrow when Katie will take on Veronika Kudermetova who just defeated Olivia Gadeki (also one of our own) yesterday in straight sets (6-1, 6-1).

Another day, another win from both players with a bit of fun along the way when Alex and Katie appeared on The Hundred AO edition segment last night with comedian Andy Lee on Nine. We are sure to come back tomorrow for their next journey as we shall see both staying on for this weekend’s third round and hopefully the next for the Round of 16.

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Australian Open Tennis 2025: Nick Kyrgios eliminated on his return to grand slam singles by Jacob Fearnley from Scotland after a long time away due to injury

by Sports Benches

Last night was the moment we’ve been waiting for Nick Kyrgios to return out on-court after a long 1 1/2 years away from Tennis due to injury. Although his return wasn’t the result we wanted with Scotland’s Jacob Fearnley going through to the second round in straight sets, he at least did his best even though he wasn’t 100% fit to keep up with his opponent.

Yes, he fired off not bad where he gave us a really good time (love him or hate him, he’s one of our Aussie Tennis players) but still lack the long runs to beat him to the punch. 

Not long following his early-round elimination, it seems he played his final singles’ match again – at least at Melbourne Park with a bit more to go in the other grand slams later this year- during his post-match press conference. 

However, he has been successful in doubles before and that’s where he can still play an important for the rest of his career, especially at the age of nearly 30.

Yeah, gonna miss his own swashbuckling personality no matter how you see it as that’s how Nick operates if he truly decides to stick only on doubles for at least the next few years. 

Everyone in Australia has cheered on him many times before including his Wimbledon Final breakthrough by surprise back in 2022 alongside Ajla Tomjlanovic (eliminated in the Quarter-Finals) only for him to be defeated by his good mate Novak Djokovic. 

We also hoped he & Ajla could’ve carried into the 2023 AO with high hopes like Ash Barty did from her 2021 Wimbledon win on what has been her home championship win in the women’s singles’ Final v Danielle Collins (USA) before she announced her retirement from the game on a high note.

But again both of them suffered huge injuries along the way and unfortunately, that’s probably the last we probably saw from Kyrgios and Tomjlanovic.

For now, will we see Nick make a huge splash with our strong doubles’ competition & have his other “Special K’s” partner Thanasi Kokkinakis that is to begin later this tournament? We’ll see as his fitness to keep himself in good condition is at the upmost priority for now.

And if you want more AO spice today, there’s not only but two players everyone in Australia needs to get behind with:

  • Katie Boulter’s journey (even though she’s British & plays for them at team tournaments) set to begin this afternoon v Canadian Rebecca Marino.
  • Then her fiancé Alex De Minaur will also begin his own campaign tonight v Botic van de Zandschulp from the Netherlands.

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2024-25 United Cup Tennis: Australia unable to advance to the Quarter-Finals despite series deciding win last night over Great Britain with poor women’s singles run a factor in their elimination from Group F

by Sports Benches

So there we have it despite Australia’s series deciding win over Great Britain to finish off the Group F campaign last night, it’s a shame they won’t even able to take further part unfortunately along with Argentina in this 2024/25 United Cup competition. 

Their poor women’s singles performances across both matches was a non-starter coupled with that shock mixed doubles series defeat a few days ago v Argentina proved so difficult for the Aussies to at least justify the best of second-place spot redemption for their Sydney group which belongs to Czech Republic when they won the opening tie v Norway even though the Czechs lost 2-1 v Poland earlier yesterday.

If so, Australia would’ve had another reunion with Italy being set up there who faced them not so long ago during the Men’s Davis Cup semi-final in November last year and again, that proved to be an extremely long shot indeed.

Yes, it was close but Great Britain had the upper hand particularly with Alex De Minaur’s future wife Katie Boulter, who is extremely good in that women’s singles area unlike us. It’s something we will have to live with for a long while until we find our next sensation to take on the world’s best when Ash Barty is clearly content away from the court these days following her Australian Open singles’ triumph three years ago. Although we can count ourselves okay when it comes to Billie Jean King Cups albeit from early qualifiers to Quarter-Finalists – nothing more.

Other than that, great to see De Minaur avoiding another series tie humiliation over Billy Harris in straight sets before De Minaur filled-in to empty the tank for doubles specialist Matt Ebden once more alongside Olivia Gadeki. However, his future wife wasn’t there though as Olivia Nicholls took Boulter’s spot instead to team up with Charlie Broom in order to avoid a conflict of interest between those two who love and cherish for each other, having just announced their long-awaited engagement lately.

I guess they won’t have to live up with that again as the next time Alex and Katie are playing on court, then it has to be together whether it’s through training or mixed doubles matches outside of team tournaments. Fortunately, he and Gadecki gave a good reason for us to celebrate our first night of 2025 on a high thanks to their match-deciding win v Nicholls & Broom.

Yes, it’s a pity Australia are unable to contend further having made the semis last year where they were defeated by eventual champions Germany. However, we are still good to go where our doubles performances are still top notch along with Alex Minaur off the back on a straight of recent grand slam quarter-finals outside of the Australian Open last season.

Make sure everyone will be right behind him as who knows if he will make his first Quarter-Final appearance at Melbourne Park soon enough. For now, they should be right behind his future wife Katie when her Great Britain team will take on Poland this evening from 5.30pm AEDT. It’s gonna be a tough one when she will go head-to-head v one of the top players in Iga Swiatek but her support would be greatly appreciated and she’s coming off a great run lately likewise as World No.24.

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2024 Davis Cup semi-final: Italy too good to end Australia’s hopes of winning this prestigious trophy courtesy of both Matteo Berrettini and Jannik Sinner

by Sports Benches

First of all, it wasn’t the series the Aussies wanted in this Davis Cup semi-final v Italy again – who previously defeated them last time round during the Final last year & did so once again last night – after seeing both of our singles players Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex De Minaur being run down 2-0 by their own opponents in Matteo Berrettini and Jannik Sinner.

But this is something we should be proud of at the end of the day with our head held high. We were oh close following that brilliant first set tiebreak mini win to begin with from Kokkanikis before he just couldn’t hang in there through the end over the best of three on what has been an excellent Berrettini comeback. 

Also, that Sinner and De Minaur match was extremely difficult to watch either when Sinner right now is our next generation version of Roger Federer from Switzerland today, has won both grand slams in 2024 both at the Australian and US Open & he too has done in straight sets – shame it was a non-starter for Alex there.  All eyes on Alex though if he can make the last 8 again but this time it has to be at Melbourne Park, although it depends on which opponents he will take on soon.

And if Kokkanikis did hold on to at least one of the singles’ match wins, then Matt Ebden and Jordan Thompson could’ve been there to give ourselves another shot at the Davis Cup crown for the Final when it comes to the reserved doubles match tie. 

But with Italy already wrapped up 2-0 without the need of doubles, looks like they are now set to defend their title once again this time v Netherlands tonight from 11pm AEDT only on BeIn Sports and not 9Gem.

So I guess with the new format around the corner for next year’s Davis Cup, it seems Australia would be back in action very early with the first round qualifiers straight after the Australian Open – unless they can be the host nation for that second round for September, which would normally be held in Europe, I assume.

This shouldn’t be too much of an issue though as sure they can continue to keep on rolling and who knows if the Aussies will be back in the Davis Cup Final again someday? Hopefully, they can finally be able to lift that historic trophy once more.

For now, onto the United Cup in little over a month’s time then here comes the three-week home grand slam come early January 2025 across Melbourne Park.

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2024 Davis Cup QF: Thanasi Kokkinakis & strong doubles pair of Ebden and Thompson enough to keep the Aussie hopes alive v the USA for tomorrow’s huge rematch v Italy

by Sports Benches

Last night was one of the best Davis Cup Quarter-Finals we just witnessed in 2024 over in Malaga with the Aussies still in the hunt for the prestigious crown thanks to their doubles deciding win over the USA by Matt Ebden and Jordan Thompson & they will now go into tomorrow night’s semi against reigning champions Italy on what would be last year’s final rematch. 

It will be another tough next few battles for sure but there’s still long way to go even if it means making the big dance once more & hopefully winning it this time against either Germany or the Netherlands.

As said earlier, our doubles stronghold of Ebden and Thompson was enough to keep our team alive also in straight sets. This deciding contest they faced was up against someone Ebden knows well from the Olympics doubles gold medal match a few months ago (August) in Paris where he won it with John Peers, having taken on silver medalists once again in Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram. 

Meanwhile, we wish Alex De Minaur could’ve finished the series early 2-0 but was not able to get past Taylor Fritz in straight sets. To be honest though, he was up against someone, who has been in more than few grand slam knockout finals, including the recent US Open final back in September where he lost to Italian Jannik Sinner. He will need more than just the fighting spirit if Alex was to shock one of the world’s best players right now of this next generation Tennis era against Sinner, so not expecting him to win it since it’s going to be one tough of a contest but he’s one of our best Tennis players here.

And at the end of the day, how good was Thanasi Kokkinakis? He too finally came out on top of the hill against Ben Shelton after a long three set battle. Love how Shelton fought back to bring up the deciding set at the third but these two just couldn’t stop fighting to start & Kokkinakis stood tall towards the end there. Love seeing Kokkinakis proving to everyone that he still has lot to offer for the Aussies to go all the way & we want to see more of his inspiring plays when he returns tomorrow.

Make sure you get behind them as it’s still been a little over 20 years since the Aussies last won the Davis Cup with the Germany v Netherlands semi to play first tonight (BeIn Sports only) followed by Australia v Italy tomorrow night on 9Gem.

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2024 US Open Tennis: Alex De Minaur’s another grand slam Quarter-Finals shot got run down by Briton Jack Draper in straight sets at Arthur Ashe Stadium

by Sports Benches

It wasn’t the match we hoped for when Alex De Minaur took centre stage on what has been another grand slam Quarter-Final of 2024 this time in the US Open & got easily beaten in straight sets by Briton Jack Draper at Arthur Ashe Stadium. 

But proud to see him make back-to-back-to-back grand slam quarter-finals this year outside the Australian Open though where he fell short to Andrey Rublev in the Round of 16 tie back in January. Had he won this game, it would’ve still been difficult to walk into the semis either way by going up between the last Quarter-Final winner that’s going to start later on of Jannik Sinner (Italy) or Daniil Medvedev.

Yes, he’s getting back up to speed after that hip injury that ruled him out of the Wimbledon Quarter-Final match two months ago v Novak Djokovic. But as said, he simply wasn’t at his best today other than close 2nd set performance. 

Keep an eye on him going into next week with the Australian Davis Cup campaign against France & Czech Republic over in Valencia, Spain. He’s the glue to where the Aussies went all the way to back-to-back Finals in November last year and two years ago and hopefully he will help them go one better, so he can walk into Australian Open 2025 with an eye for a Quarter-Finals spot for the first time.

For now, Jack Draper is your winner en route to his first major semi-finals at age 22 after a brilliant performance from start to finish in straight sets (6-3, 7-5 & 6-2).

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