Sixth time unlucky, it’s back to the drawing board for a devastated Alex de Minaur at the US Open after he blew surely his best chance yet to reach a grand slam semi-final.
With his serving once again letting him down badly, Australia’s No.1 was still left reflecting on golden opportunities missed as he went down 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 7-6 (7-4) to Felix Auger-Aliassime in a curiously uneven and largely flat quarter-final marathon at Flushing Meadows on Wednesday.
In his fifth major quarter-final, looking for that elusive breakthrough, de Minaur was one set up, held a set point in the second, fought back to parity in the third before succumbing, and controlled the fourth yet still ended up faltering and going down fairly tamely on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
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With both men seeming fazed by the magnitude of the occasion, it was 25th seed Auger-Aliassime, seeking his first semi-final since his breakthrough at Flushing Meadows in 2021, who held his nerve best, finally coming up big with his booming forehand in the fourth set tiebreaker to seal the win in four hours 10 minutes.
But de Minaur, who had bowed out at Wiimbledon to Novak Djokovic bemoaning the poor quality of his serving, will again have to unravel why his first-serve percentage was down at just 42, which is nowhere near good enough at this level.
For all that, he still looked as if he had the solidity to prevail and, as usual, there was nothing wrong with his spirit.
But again the killer instinct wasn’t there as, instead, Auger-Aliassime, ranked No.27 in the world, brought the pain.
Meanwhile, fans roasted de Minaur, and Auger-Aliassime for that matter, for the underwhelming match.
“I haven’t seen a single person earnestly watching FAA vs De Minaur. My entire timeline is people just begging for it to be over for women’s matches to start,” one fans said on social media.
And another: “I have aged 2 years and de Minaur and FAA are still playing the 4th set only.”
And another: “Felix and de Minaur playing the four hour classico no one asked for.”
“Nothing against the guy, and I don’t really know how to explain this, but tennis wins whenever Alex de Minaur loses a match at a big tournament,” said another.
Auger-Aliassime, the one-time wonder boy Auger-Aliassime who reached his first grand slam semi at this event four years ago, admitted it felt like he had been out of semi-final action a lot longer.
“It feels amazing ... four years ago, it feels like more,” he said.
“It’s been a tough couple of years but it feels great to be back in the semis.”
The Canadian showed plenty of resilience after being on the verge of going two sets to love down, with de Minaur leading 6-5 in the second-set tiebreak. He erased it with a 190km/h ace before levelling the contest, and never looked back.
It was clearly a let-down for de Minaur and he will only takeaway, perhaps, one dazzling point from the match — an incredible tweener lob that landed on the line and won him the biggest cheers of the day from an often distracted Ashe crowd.
Outside of that, he will now be wondering how to get further in grand slam events.
Meanwhile, Auger-Aliassime will next play either defending champion Jannik Sinner or 10th seed Lorenzo Musetti, who face off in an all-Italian quarter-final later on Arthur Ashe.
ALEX DE MINAUR’S GRAND SLAM QUARTER-FINAL PAIN
* 2020 US Open: lost to Dominic Thiem (AUT) 6-1 6-2 6-4
* 2024 French Open: lost to Alexander Zverev (GER) 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-4
* 2024 Wimbledon: lost to Novak Djokovic (SRB) injured, walkover
* 2024 US Open: lost to Jack Draper (GBR) 6-3 7-5 6-2
* 2025: Australian Open: lost to Jannik Sinner (ITA) 6-3 6-2 6-1
* 2025: US Open: lost to Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 7-6 (7-4)
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