Alex De Minaur a reçu "une gifle" ce mercredi, en quarts de l'Open d'Australie. C'est le terme qu'il a choisi au moment de livrer son ressenti après sa défaite contre Jannik Sinner, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. Courageux mais impuissant, l'Australien n'a jamais pu perturber la machine Sinner. Soutenu par son public, De Minaur a essayé, s'est encouragé, mais n'a jamais existé réellement dans la rencontre ni fait vibrer ses compatriotes. Frustrant...
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00:00I don't know, it's been too many times playing him and seeing the same thing, so I'm not
00:11even surprised anymore when I face him and matches like these happen, so he was very
00:21good today.
00:22I think with the conditions a little bit slower and a little bit later at night, it's pretty
00:29tough to make him miss or hurt him, and yeah, he was bloody good tonight.
00:35Mark.
00:36Alex, I know it's hard right now, but obviously congratulations on the tournament.
00:43Mentally, how tough is it as a top 10 player who's made four Grand Slam quarterfinals,
00:47when you go out and you have to play someone like tonight and have that experience?
00:50What's that like mentally?
00:51Yeah, look, I'm going to be completely honest and transparent.
00:58It's tough.
00:59Honestly, it's tough going out there and playing someone like Yannick, because ultimately,
01:07I think there's a lot of factors that vary into the scoreboard today, but you know, matchup.
01:14I think he's probably my worst matchup, and you can see it in the head-to-head, but in
01:20these types of conditions, it's even tougher to play against him, so you go out there,
01:28you compete, you try everything, you bring every sort of different look that you can,
01:33but in these types of conditions where it's a little bit colder and you can't really get
01:39the ball out of his strike zone and he can just unload and not miss, it's tough.
01:47I think if we're playing middle of the day on a stupidly hot day, then that's when you
01:57can see some errors come out, and that's when you probably see Yannick not play at his best,
02:03but conditions like today, it's tough to rattle him at all.
02:10You've got more of an aura in the locker room and people come out and know you're going
02:18to be a tough beat. When you see him on hardcourt, based on what he's done over the last 18 months
02:23on hardcourt, what is that aura like?
02:26Yeah, he's built this aura from beating everyone. That's the thing about it. It's not like he's
02:36just had a good week here or a good week there. He's just beaten everyone. I think the best way
02:47to describe it is the fact that he was able to, I don't know if it was last year or two years ago,
02:55play Novak here and play pretty flawless and, again, give him not too many games.
03:04And Novak out here is probably the best player to have ever played on these courts.
03:14The fact that he's got this top level that he can do this to players, it's pretty tough.
03:21You go into the match and you know it's going to be a battle. It's going to be tough. You're
03:28going to try different things, but then you're an hour and 30 in and you're struggling to win
03:35games and you're trying to find ways to get on the board. It's pretty surreal.
03:42Do you feel that you've got enough matches coming into the Aussie Open and would you
03:46consider perhaps playing a tour event tournament instead of the United Cup in future years?
03:51That's a great question. Ultimately, I would have loved to play a couple more matches
04:05the first week of the year. The way it fell about, it didn't come, it wasn't meant to be.
04:12But, again, I don't think today was lack of matches, ultimately.
04:19What is probably not ideal is that in the United Cup, you can go out there and have a great
04:32two matches, but you're very much dependent on, one, your team, which is, it can work both ways.
04:40You can not play well and your team take you through or the other way around, but also
04:46the opponents you're playing, because that gives you then the different points,
04:53the way the point system works. It is tough when you don't get through the group stages,
05:02so it's probably something I'm going to have to look back and think about and talk with the team.
05:08Alex, you mentioned that top level that Yannick has and the other top five players have.
05:18Are you able to describe what makes those top level guys so different to the guys you might
05:24play earlier in Grand Slam tournaments? I think what Yannick has in these conditions is
05:33he's got, one, very little unforced errors, and his ball speed is very high. So if when you're
05:44trying to go toe-to-toe with him, naturally you're lifting your ball speed, so all of a sudden you're
05:51pressing more than you're used to, which obviously creates a couple more unforced errors, unless
05:58you're feeling the ball and feeling great. He's got amazing movement that he can absorb and
06:06defend, and he's so good out of the corners as well, so sometimes he can change defense into
06:15offense so quickly. And yeah, if you decide to be passive with him, he's got the firepower to
06:24hit those wins. And I think today he served at a very high level as well, which ultimately was
06:31what made the difference. Alex, you've got your home crowd out there, you've got thousands of
06:38people cheering you on. I just wondered, does that make it more difficult then when you're
06:42out there and struggling to sort of find any way to home? Yeah, it's tough. I mean,
06:48I know that whole crowd has got my back. They want me to go out there, make it competitive,
06:56try to make it into a match, and I'm trying my best. And if anything, it's frustrating that
07:04I can't do it, right? That I'm doing my best, but I can't make it into even a match where
07:11the crowd can get behind and start supporting. And that's what he does so well. He comes out
07:18of the blocks in the sets so well. And whenever we've played, it feels like the first three games,
07:28four games, he gets the early break, right? And then all of a sudden, we never get to the early
07:35stages of sets where all of a sudden you can have scoreboard pressure. All of a sudden,
07:40the rallies can get a little bit tense, and I can ask more questions and get the crowd involved and
07:45all that kind of stuff. So it is disappointing. I don't want to leave like this, but
07:54yeah, it's tough. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough.
07:58It is disappointing. I don't want to leave like this, but yeah, I can only
08:07get better and come back stronger next year.
08:16It's been a great run. First time Australian has got to the quarterfinals. It's been really
08:22enjoyable for us as Australian tennis writers to write about you. I'm wondering
08:28how you can reflect on the last week and a half, and also given the nature of the
08:34defeat tonight, the positives and negatives. I mean, the positives, I think how I handled
08:43everything. I mean, the fact that I came in this year top 10 and a lot of expectation, a lot of
08:56pressure. Obviously, the whole country wanted me to do well. I wanted to do well here, and
09:09yeah, I thought I handled it really well to put myself in this position.
09:14I would have loved to do more today, but this is what happens sometimes in tennis.
09:24And look, the negatives is after playing some great tennis on home soil and
09:33gaining so much, you feel like you've just been slapped across the face, to be honest,
09:39to finish off like that. And I guess the other positive is it's not the first time that I felt
09:46that. I felt the same thing when I played Novak a couple of years ago. So, hey, I'll survive.
09:58I'll keep improving. And if anything, I just need to sit with my team and figure out a way to
10:07hurt Yannick on the court. That's ultimately the way we've got to look at it and find
10:16different ways, because at the moment we don't have it. So back to the drawing board,
10:22like I've done my whole career. And as I said, I still don't think this is my ceiling. I still
10:28think I've got more in the tank, so I'll be searching for that. Last one.
10:34I guess you just sort of touched on the sort of the bittersweet result here of
10:40going to the quarters in Northam. Does an experience like this, particularly with
10:44the heightened expectation of playing at home,
10:47give you more or less belief that you can go all the way in a Grand Slam?
10:52I mean, it's pretty tough right now for me to sit here after this defeat and tell you
11:03that I believe I can go all the way. But saying that, I do think that there are opportunities
11:11out there. And tennis is so much about match-ups, right? And yeah, I think right now my worst
11:28match-up on tour is probably Yannick. You know, there's a head-to-head that doesn't lie, right?
11:34If I'm in a different side of the draw, different little section, then who knows?
11:43And I genuinely think I'm going to give myself opportunities. And I don't think my peak is
11:49making quarterfinals at a slam. I see other players that have made it further, have made
11:57semis, have made finals. And I do believe that I can be amongst them, right? If they
12:05have been able to accomplish that, then why not me?