Alex de Minaur reaches maiden Australian Open quarterfinal with some of his career best tennis

Alex de Minaur couldn't help but feel the weight of the moment as 15,000 fans rose to their feet, cheering his first-ever quarter-final appearance at his home Grand Slam. He defeated American newcomer Alex Michelsen in straight sets, 6-0, 7-6(7-5), 6-3, becoming the first Australian man to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals since Nick Kyrgios in 2015.

In his previous match, de Minaur had told the crowd that his "legs were back" after a breakthrough 2024 and struggles with injuries. On Monday night, under the bright lights of Rod Laver Arena, he proved it. The 25-year-old Australian had previously reached the quarter-finals at the US Open, French Open, and Wimbledon, but had consistently fallen short at the Australian Open, losing in the fourth round for the past three years. Until Monday night, he finally broke through.

Faced with such a significant moment, he could easily have been overwhelmed by emotion—he has long yearned for a strong showing at his home Grand Slam—but he is now more confident and composed than ever. "My whole career has been a day-by-day process, success doesn't happen overnight," he said in his post-match interview. Currently ranked eighth in the world, he is the sixth Australian man to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals since the Grand Slam moved to Melbourne Park in 1988.

In his match against Michelsen, de Minaur displayed his growing confidence, moving freely around the court, hitting powerful aces, and constantly changing his shots to keep his opponent guessing. Despite the straight-set victory, the 20-year-old American did pose a challenge to de Minaur. Lleyton Hewitt noted that Michelsen showed two completely different sides of his game, losing the first set 0-6 but fighting back strongly in the second-set tiebreak.

"Michelsen was a completely different player tonight. The end of the second set was a completely different story to the start of the match," Hewitt said on Channel Nine's broadcast. "So for Alex to be able to fend him off at the end of that second set (in the tiebreak) was very impressive... Alex came out tonight with a great mindset, he was trying to throw Michelsen off balance and he used his changes of direction really well." De Minaur is currently in excellent form, but he will need to maintain it in his quarter-final match against world number one Jannik Sinner.

De Minaur has never defeated Sinner in their past nine encounters. Sinner had not lost a set since last October prior to this tournament, but was pushed to four sets in his second-round match against Rune and Australian Tristan Schoolkate. Meanwhile, de Minaur has won three of his four matches in this tournament, only dropping one set to Francisco Cerundolo in the third round.

On Monday, Sinner overcame physical discomfort and trembling in his fourth-round match against Holger Rune, a match that de Minaur watched. "It was definitely an interesting match," de Minaur said of Sinner's match, in which the Italian took a nearly 12-minute medical timeout, followed by Rune also taking one. "(But) I'm looking forward to it (playing him on Wednesday). Obviously, it's going to be an incredibly tough match. I'm going to have to do something I haven't done before. But why not start here?"

While de Minaur still has much work to do, the young Australian can bask in the joy of victory and a personal milestone that he has long pursued. "This means a lot. I love you guys, so much," he said emotionally to the crowd. "The thing I want to do most is play well in front of you guys in Australia. So I'm very happy I've finally made it to the quarter-finals here. Let's keep going for bigger and better things. Come on!"