Jannik Sinner emphatically ended local hopes of a first home men’s singles champion since 1976 by easing past Alex de Minaur with a polished quarterfinal performance on Wednesday night at Australian Open 2025.
MORE: All the scores from Day 11 at AO 2025
There were no signs of the physical issues that affected Sinner during Monday’s victory over Holger Rune, as he cruised into his second Australian Open semifinal and the fifth of his career at the majors with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 6-1 victory.
De Minaur had won just a single set in nine previous meetings with the Italian world No.1, and the match quickly took on a familiar feel once Sinner clinched the first of six breaks of serve in front of an expectant Rod Laver Arena crowd.
The 23-year-old from the very northern tip of Italy gave the ‘Demon’ fans inside RLA absolutely nothing to smile about, as he swept to his most comfortable victory of the tournament to set up a semifinal with Ben Shelton on Friday after the American had earlier beaten Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in four sets.
MORE: AO 2025 men's singles draw
“On days like these when you break early in each set it’s a little bit easier,” said Sinner, who goes level with Italian great Nicola Pietrangeli on five career Grand Slam semifinals.
“He’s a tough competitor and an amazing player. These kinds of matches they can go quickly, but they can change very fast if I go down with the level a little bit and he takes the opportunities so I’m very happy about my performance today.”
On-court interviewer Jim Courier asked Sinner how he’d recovered so quickly from the physical issues that had hampered him against Rune 48 hours earlier.
“Yesterday was a very easy day – I played just half an hour, 40 minutes,” the top seed explained. “Talking about general physical [condition], especially when you’re young, you recover very fast, it’s a bit different,” he added, to the amusement of the crowd.
Despite his many improvements, on paper beating the man at the top of the ATP rankings looked like a gargantuan task for De Minaur, and that's exactly how the match played out.
The world No.8’s single set against the two-time major winner had come five years ago during a meeting in Sofia, and Sinner once again was just too good in every department.
The nature of the victory sends a warning to those remaining in the draw that Jannik the Fox won’t be handing over his Norman Brookes Challenge Cup without an almighty scrap.
As early as the fourth game of the match, Sinner showed everyone how quickly fortunes can change against the very best.
Up 1-2 30-0 on serve, De Minaur missed an easy backhand volley that would have put him fully in control of the game, and a few minutes later Sinner made him pay to break for 3-1.
In truth, once he’d made that first move Sinner never really looked stressed on his way to a one-set lead a little over the half-hour mark.
The favourite immediately took control of the second set too by breaking again in the opening game.
With De Minaur down 30-40, the Italian mixed power and then finesse with a drop shot to draw the Aussie forward before finishing him off with a high-speed rat-tat-tat volley exchange.
Sinner then sealed a double break and a 4-1 second-set lead just after the hour mark with a thumping crosscourt forehand.
When the Italian sprinted to a 3-0 lead in the third, he really began to turn on the style and finished off the contest with extra gears to spare after just an hour and 48 minutes.