The moment that showed the difference between de Minaur and the world No.1

There was one moment in Alex de Minaur’s quarter-final loss to Carlos Alcaraz that highlighted the difference between the two players more than anything else.

With Alcaraz 3-1 up in the second set and on serve, the two entered into an epic rally. It wasn’t long, but it was tricky, and as de Minaur sent a forehand winner crosscourt, the Spaniard couldn’t help but laugh as he revelled in the performance rather than reeling at losing the point.

It’s easy to laugh off a point when you’re at 40-15 and on serve after already snatching a break in the set. It’s also easy to enjoy yourself on court when you’re 22, have already won six major titles, and can send an ace out wide on the next point to seal the game.

It’s not so easy if you’re a 26-year-old de Minaur, who is in his seventh grand slam quarter-final – having never qualified for the semi-finals – and facing a player he has never beaten before.

Alcaraz’s reaction highlights the fundamental difference between these two players. To borrow an analogy from The Tennis Podcast: Alcaraz is playing like a superhero who continues to discover his powers.

Unfortunately, for de Minaur, he’s “playing out of my comfort zone and, at times, out of my skin”, and it’s still not enough.

It’s not as if there was nothing on the line for Alcaraz in Tuesday night’s match.

He is going for the career grand slam in Australia, and would be the youngest man to do it, and the first since Novak Djokovic completed his at the French Open in 2016, if he was crowned champion at Melbourne Park.

But Alcaraz plays with the freedom of someone who is already a champion while de Minaur is still trying to become one.

The difference became apparent almost immediately, when Alcaraz broke the Australian in his first service game of the match to go 2-0 up in nine minutes.

It was a concerning start from de Minaur, and reminiscent of his devastating 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 quarter-final loss to Jannik Sinner a year earlier, where the life was sucked out of Rod Laver Arena as it quickly became apparent de Minaur could not win that match.

Anxieties were eased when de Minaur got the break back later in the set, but it put him on the back foot from the start.

He managed to go game-for-game with Alcaraz for a while, but came undone at 5-6 after chair umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore gave him a time violation warning just as he was about to serve to stay in the set.

To his credit, Alcaraz approached Asderaki-Moore to explain he wasn’t ready for de Minaur’s serve, which was why the Australian was waiting.

But it didn’t matter. The exchange was enough to rattle de Minaur, and the break in concentration coupled with the scoreboard pressure led to a momentum shift in favour of Alcaraz, who was able to wrap up the first set 7-5 with the late break of serve.

Unfortunately for de Minaur, the first set had set a precedent for how the next two would go.

Alcaraz once again broke the Australian’s serve to start the second as he rode the momentum from the first set.

Even with a five-set match a possibility, it never felt plausible.

The immediate break to start the second was a dagger to the heart of de Minaur’s campaign.

When Alcaraz snagged another late break to wrap up the second set 6-2, there was no hope de Minaur could come back to win in five. If the shoe was on the other foot, and it was Alcaraz who was two sets down, you would back the Spaniard to find a way.

By the time Alcaraz broke de Minaur’s serve to start the third, everyone in the stadium knew what was coming.

They had seen this movie before. A straight-sets loss for their home hero was inevitable.

As Alcaraz said, de Minaur was making too many errors in his attempt to mix it with the big guys.

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