Sinner sweeps past De Minaur to thwart home hopes of Australian Open joy | Australian Open 2025

At one point during this humiliating defeat of world no. 1 Jannick Sinner over Alex de Minaur in the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park, the Australian’s mother Esther looked to the sky. Her son was in the middle of his biggest test, a clash against world no. 1 as deep at a grand slam as the Australian had ever been. But above the open roof of Rod Laver Arena, there was no god, only seagulls. And looking down at her son again, the man they called “Demon” was in hell.

In a warning to the other semi-finalists, defending champion Sinner beat his top 10 peer to win 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 in a brisk 108 minutes on a windy Wednesday night. There were no signs of the illness that afflicted him in the round of 16. On the contrary, this was a performance that will make his rivals sick to their stomachs.

A semi-final against American Ben Shelton – the lowest-ranked player remaining in the draw – looms for Sinner, who will avoid 10-times champion Novak Djokovic and second seed Alexander Zverev in the next round. That draw and performance has brought him tantalizingly close to defending his Australian Open crown.

Sinner said he was surprised by how well he played against De Minaur, who he has now beaten 10 times in a row. “We know each other pretty well now, we played last year so many times and we try to understand each other’s games and try to prepare in the best possible way,” he said. “I am very happy with my performance today.”

Even the understated stuff. This was an imperious dismantling of De Minaur, a player with a reputation as one of the tour’s best defenders. One who, against regular tour pros, could be relied upon to return more balls than almost anyone else. But against Sinner’s heavy thrusts, even his famous legs were no match, the evening’s entertainment became a horror show in a packed arena with high expectations.

De Minaur was the first local to reach the men’s quarters at Melbourne Park since Nick Kyrgios a decade ago, and his steady improvement in recent years has now taken him to the quarter-finals of the past four grand slams.

The Australian has struggled with his serve in the past two rounds, although he had promised it would return. That claim seemed premature. His first serve percentage was hovering around 50% in his early service games and Sinner capitalized with a break in the fourth game.

It limited the crowd’s energy in what were largely subdued opening exchanges, those in attendance no doubt nervous about the Australian’s task. As far as we know, he had never beaten the Italian and there were ominous signs that the streak would continue. There was only a single break in the first set, but De Minaur struggled to make his opponent uncomfortable at all, and the deeper the rallies went, the more in control the Italian seemed.

Early in the second set, a shout from an Australian from the crowd rang out: “Be reckless, come on.” De Minaur clearly tried and had chosen a slightly more proactive approach. He was more aggressive in points and tried to get forward in the field, but little bore fruit.

The Australian’s chance for a break point came in the second set when he had already given up one on his own serve. It was a fleeting moment of hope for the interrupted crowd, the difference so stark from the crowd captivated by the clash between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz the night before.

But that optimism was extinguished by another foul from De Minaur, who gestured towards his box, his frustration clearly growing. A point later, Sinner sealed the game with a drop shot where the best wheels in the game didn’t even start spinning.

Sinner quickly accelerated to victory and in a third set that lasted just 30 minutes, he broke the Australian three times. It was painful to see the listless De Minaur, who was eliminated at his home Grand Slam last year with a 6-0 set against Andrey Rublev in the round of 16, fall so far short of his expectations.

Sinner is now the first Italian player, male or female, to reach the semi-finals at Melbourne Park on multiple occasions. In 2024, he won two slams and became the first player to win at least eight men’s singles titles in a season since Andy Murray in 2016. With his illness behind him, the level he demonstrated on Wednesday suggests 2025 could bring even more success starting against Shelton on Friday.

“He’s one of the best servers on the tour, lefty, another rotation of the ball is coming, so hopefully I’ll be ready,” Sinner said of the match. “Hopefully I can return as many serves as possible and then try to stay very focused on my game like today,” he said.

As the players met at the net, De Minaur appeared to tell Sinner simply “too good”. The Australian walked off with his head bowed and his hands together in a show of thanks to the supportive but disappointed crowd. Or maybe it was a prayer.