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De Minaur sinks Thompson to reach 3rd straight Grand Slam QF

  • Posted: Sep 03, 2024

Alex de Minaur reached his third consecutive major quarter-final on Monday at the US Open, where he overcame fellow Australian Jordan Thompson 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 under the lights in New York.

The 10th seed raced out of the blocks to take command early and showed great foot speed throughout on Louis Armstrong, tracking down drop volleys and flat Thompson groundstrokes to reach the last eight after two hours and 57 minutes.

“I’ve got so much respect for Thommo. We’ve grown up together and he’s been like a big brother to me,” De Minaur said. “I really appreciate everything he’s done for me. He’s a helluva competitor, my Davis Cup teammate and I can’t wait to share the court many, many times with him.”

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With his 40th tour-level win of the year, De Minaur passed Novak Djokovic in seventh place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. The 25-year-old has enjoyed an impressive year, reaching the last eight at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, while winning titles in Acapulco and ‘s-Hertogenbosch. He is aiming to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.

“It’s just the mentality,” De Minaur said of his consistent success this year. “Having a positive mindset no matter what , trying to win every point and as always compete my heart out.”

Playing his first tournament since Wimbledon, where a hip injuring forced his withdrawal ahead of a quarter-final with Novak Djokovic, De Minaur will meet British lefty Jack Draper in the last eight.

De Minaur takes a 3-0 Lexus ATP Head2Head series lead into the clash, with both men aiming to reach the semi-finals at a major for the first time. De Minaur also advanced to the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows in 2020 when he lost to eventual champion Dominic Thiem.

De Minaur started fast against Thompson, who hit one winner and 12 unforced errors in a nervy first set. The top-ranked Australian was consistent from the baseline to lead but had to withstand an attacking second-set showing from Thompson. The 30-year-old started to move forward more frequently, winning 71 per cent (12/17) of net points in the set to apply pressure on De Minaur.

The 10th seed reacted well in the third set, winning 93 per cent (14/15) of his first-serve points and gaining the decisive break of the set in the sixth game and then survived a rollercoaster fourth set, which featured five service breaks, after rallying from 1-3. De Minaur had an edge in the key stats categories, winning 56 per cent of second serves to Thompson’s 43 per cent and making less than half (26 to 59) of his opponent’s unforced errors.

Thompson was aiming to reach the last eight at a major for the first time. The 30-year-old leaves New York at No. 29 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

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Medvedev marches past Borges in New York

  • Posted: Sep 02, 2024

Is ‘hard-court specialist’ Daniil Medvedev ready to go all the way once more at the US Open?

The fifth seed and 2021 titlist continued his impressive 2024 campaign at the New York major with a 6-0, 6-1, 6-3 fourth-round triumph against Nuno Borges on Monday afternoon. Medvedev was in control for almost all of the one-hour, 51-minute encounter, during which his only brief moment of peril came when he trailed by a break early in the third set.

Since 2018, Medvedev has won more tour-level matches (268) on hard courts than anyone else on the ATP Tour: Andrey Rublev is second on that list with 210. The No. 5 in the PIF ATP Rankings certainly appeared at home inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, where he ground Borges down with his trademark retrieval skills and converted eight of 16 break points he earned.

“I try to work hard. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t,” Medvedev told his ATP Tour rival Nick Kyrgios in his on-court interview. “There are days when it is tougher to go out on court and practise, but I have the mentality that if the other guy practises more than me, I have less chances to win, and I want to win all the time. So I try to practise as much as I can.

“I’ve had a lot of success here at the US Open and last time I lost in the fourth round was against you. Good memories.”

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Medvedev, who is bidding to win the same trophy twice for the first time this fortnight in New York, has now won all three of his Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings with Portuguese star Borges following his victories earlier this year at the Australian Open and in Halle. The 28-year-old, who has dropped just one set across his four matches so far, will play top seed Jannik Sinner or home favourite Tommy Paul in the quarter-finals.

His run in New York so far has also boosted Medvedev’s chances of qualifying for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals for the sixth consecutive year. The 20-time tour-level champion is currently fourth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, and he could jump above Carlos Alcaraz into third by clinching the US Open trophy.

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Isner, Opelka & more weigh in on Sinner's serving surge

  • Posted: Sep 02, 2024

A lot of the attention on Jannik Sinner’s game goes to his booming groundstrokes and dominant baseline game. But the key to his ascent to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings this year has been his serve.

The Italian has dominated all major service categories according to Infosys ATP Stats, positioning himself to unleash the rest of his game on the ATP Tour.

“There are still signs of sometimes being inconsistent with that shot. It has been more consistent in the last three, four months, that’s for sure,” Sinner told ATPTour.com in Cincinnati. “Then it’s a weapon or a shot where I can put myself a little bit out of danger sometimes, but I still believe that there’s a lot of work to do.”

Sinner entered the US Open leading the Tour in service games won (91.3%), second-serve points won (57.5%) and break points saved (72.9%). He is second in first-serve points won at 79.5 per cent, which only trails Grigor Dimitrov.

“We changed a couple of things with the toss of the ball, and also my mental side,” Sinner said. “It has been different, trying to play sometimes with a bit more rotation, instead of going to hit the ace or all that stuff.”

<img src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/09/02/18/37/sinner-cincinnati-2024-serve-final.jpg” style=”width:100%;” alt=”Jannik Sinner” />
Photo Credit: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour
One of the best servers in the history of tennis, John Isner, has taken notice of the Italian’s improvement. The final meeting of their Lexus ATP Head2Head series came two years ago at Wimbledon.

“A lot of people have noticed, myself included, that Sinner has, really since working with Darren Cahill, changed his service motion from platform to pinpoint,” Isner said. “His serve looks pretty similar to mine and in my mind, that’s the superior way to serve. So he obviously stuck with it. It seems like it would be a simple change, but it’s definitely not. He stuck with it, stayed the course and it’s paying off for him as his service numbers are so, so good.”

Isner won 91.8 per cent of his service games in his career, with his record 14,470 aces a big reason why. The American explained that Sinner’s improvement has been different.

“It’s not that he’s hitting a million aces like I did, but a little bit better placement allows him to dictate play much quicker in the rally on his serve and we all know he’s one of the best baseliners in the world,” Isner said. “It seems to me he’s improved just his serve in a vacuum about 10 per cent and that’s been huge for him and a big reason why he ascended to No. 1 in the world.”

Another dominant server, Reilly Opelka, won a doubles title with Sinner in Atlanta in 2021. The American missed nearly two years due to a wrist injury. But upon his return this year in Newport, he raved about how much the Italian has improved.

“Jannik’s improved a tonne since I’ve been on Tour. No one talks about it just because he was always really good,” Opelka said. “He didn’t have a great serve when I left. He took the ball almost too early, and made too many unforced errors. The guy barely loses to anybody now. You can’t say hands down the best player in the world since Alcaraz won Wimbledon, but those two are on their own level.”

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According to Opelka, Sinner is hitting his spots with his serve “way better” and his cadence has changed.

“His motion looks faster. It looks like he changed the tempo of his motion,” Opelka said. “Any young guy — he was so young, and he was so good — you just knew he was going to improve and he’s still going to improve, which is scary. I got to hang out with him in Atlanta. Nicest kid in the whole world. We were going to dinner every night. Everything that you see, that you suspect, is who he really is. He’s as sweet of a guy as you can imagine.”

Sinner has not served quite as well in New York, where he has won 85 per cent of his service games. However, compared to his early-career numbers, that is still a solid effort. Before 2023, the Italian never won more than 83 per cent of his service games in a season.

The 85 per cent is also slightly misleading. The 23-year-old has lost serve six times in the tournament, and three of those service games came in his first set of the tournament. In his nine sets since, he has dropped a total of three service games. Excluding that opening set against Mackenzie McDonald, Sinner has won 89.5 per cent of his service games.

Sinner’s second-round opponent, #NextGenATP American Alex Michelsen, came away from their clash inside Arthur Ashe Stadium impressed.

“The guy is hitting 128 [mph] flat wide aces on the Ad and [at] 15/30, 40/30, on big points, he’s coming up with the goods,” Michelsen said. “He’s a very clutch server and that’s not really something I realised until I played him and it’s just like, ‘Ugh, this guy’s getting two, three free points a game’, and that helps a lot.”

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Coach Gutierrez on De Minaur’s most improved asset: his mind

  • Posted: Sep 02, 2024

Alex de Minaur is enjoying another fruitful season. The Australian, No. 10 in the PIF ATP Rankings, peaked at No. 6 a few months ago and has claimed two titles in 2024 (Acapulco and ’s-Hertogenbosch).

De Minaur also reached the last eight at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon. On Monday, De Minaur will take on his countryman Jordan Thompson at the US Open for a place in yet another major quarter-final. What is clear is that, despite his 25 years, the Australian is still getting better. His recent improvements have earned him a place among the best players in the world.

“Honestly, there’s no secret to progress other than following our most basic ideas and principles,” Adolfo Gutierrez, De Minaur’s coach, told ATPTour.com in New York. “My father taught me that it is daily hard work, never giving up, and believing in what we’re doing.

“The goals we have today are still to improve everything: to be a better player, a better person and not to settle for anything. As well as trusting oneself in the big moments, and training to be ready, above all for the Grand Slams, which were on our to-do list.”

Of course, the 2024 version of De Minaur was not built in a couple of days. Gutierrez, who has been with the Australian since his junior days, knows exactly what the process was to improve a player who already had formidable foundations. Now, through pure hard work, De Minaur has found his place among the elite.

“Since we started together, we’ve tried to maintain a clear focus, which has been to base ourselves on improving physically, maintaining his speed and above all his strength,” explained Gutierrez. “In recent years the work has been more about playing much more aggressively in an attempt to dominate as much as possible.”

And what of De Minaur’s mental development?

“I strongly believe that his biggest improvement has been mental,” acknowledged Gutierrez. “Without confidence, without believing in oneself, in what we want to achieve, it would’ve been impossible. We’ve been working on many things mentally and we’re seeing the results of that. It motivates us to believe more in it. As a consequence, it helps me further develop and improve his tennis.”

De Minaur nonetheless has some unfinished business in 2024: he had to withdraw from Wimbledon before taking to court for his last-eight clash against Novak Djokovic as the result of a hip cartilage injury. If he defeats Thompson on Monday in New York, he will get another bite at a Grand Slam quarter-final.

“We weren’t able to play the quarters at Wimbledon because of the injury, and we were playing very well,” lamented Gutierrez. “After that, the recovery wasn’t easy, but luckily we’re back and feeling better every day.

“When you reach the quarters of a Grand Slam you’re always playing with the best players at that time, and it gets very tough. You have to stay in the moment and hope that the nerves and tension affect your opponent more, and that things go well in terms of that little bit of luck you always need.”

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In that context, De Minaur has some ambitious goals in mind, for this season and, of course, for the rest of his career.

“Honestly, we never set limits for ourselves and it’s not because we’re arrogant or pretentious,” said Gutierrez, whose charge is currently eighth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. “I think that would be a mistake on our part. Whatever has to happen will happen, but we’ll work to be as high as possible and to stay there, which is the most difficult part.

“Short term, the goal is to be in Turin [at the Nitto ATP Finals]. It would be a dream after the injury and missing some important tournaments. We’ll keep trying, or at least to be able to finish our first year among the best, which was the goal at the start of the year.”

Editor’s note: This story was translated from ATPTour.com/es

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