Alex de Minaur seeks perfect 10th meeting with ‘hell of a player’ Jannik Sinner
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No 8 seed needs to avoid history repeating to beat the reigning champion for the first time in their quarter-final. Lose nine times out of 10, and many would give up. But for Alex de Minaur against world No 1 Jannik Sinner, that ratio would be just fine with him. The world No 8 hasn’t beaten the Italian in nine meetings going back to their first encounter in 2019 (apart from a scheduling-related walkover in 2023).
![[Jack Snape]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/07/11/Jack_Snape.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
It is no Novak Djokovic-Gael Monfils, which reached 20-0 in favour of the Serb in Brisbane a few weeks ago, but De Minaur’s record against Sinner is one of the most one-sided among current players on tour. As the pair prepare to meet for the 10th time in the Australian Open quarter-final on Wednesday night, De Minaur was owning those nine defeats. “Ultimately Jannik is a hell of a player,” he said. “It’s not really about being a bad matchup, it’s that he’s a pretty good player, right? So he’s a bad matchup for a lot of players out there on tour.”.
![['You both start at 0-0': De Minaur embraces underdog status against Sinner – video]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1ee6f760d0d3980867ea09fa007c09ab6bfe54d5/238_138_1345_757/1345.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
But De Minaur believes he has a chance. In the final in Rotterdam last year, he was only just shaded by the newly minted Australian Open champion in two tight sets. The underdog broke Sinner twice, and the match swung on a 23-minute game that De Minaur narrowly failed to hold.
“That one was probably, out of the last matches we have played, the only one that I can really take a lot out of because I was physically at 100%, and I think that was quite a good battle with opportunities here and there,” De Minaur said. “And, hey, we’ve never played quarter-finals of a slam, so that’s a new one.”.
