Alex de Minaur has breezed into the quarter-finals of the US Open for the second straight year with a dominant win over Switzerland’s Leandro Reidi on Monday in New York.
The Australian star, who has dropped only one set to date at Flushing Meadows, confirmed his firm favouritism when comprehensively outplaying Reidi to win 6-3 6-2 6-1 in a blistering 1hr 33min. He will play Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final eight.
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The hard-hitting Reidi, who entered the US Open qualifying under an injury-protected ranking, had enjoyed a breakout major in New York when reaching the last 16.
But de Minaur, who will play in his sixth grand slam quarter-final in two days time, is a seasoned professional and proved far too solid for Readi in the clash on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
“I’m super proud of what I’m doing,” De Minaur said.
“Ultimately this is where I want to be — I want to be playing for big titles, I want to be in contention.
“I’m putting myself in the right places and back in the quarter-finals. I’m going to go out there and have a swing.”
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The Sydneysider had spent the opening week on the smaller stadium courts at Flushing Meadows but had no trouble adjusting to the bigger and louder Louis Armstrong Stadium, which has a Long Island Railroad Line running directly behind it.
The 26-year-old served nine aces and only three double faults in the Rd of 16 match, numbers which were reversed for his rival.
While the pair struck a similar number of winners, Reidi made almost twice as many unforced errors as the Aussie, who won 90 of the 147 points played in a lopsided match.
The challenge for de Minaur, who was injured a year ago when falling to Jack Draper in a quarter-final, is to take the next step into a grand slam semi-final for the first time.
On paper it will be an easier task, with the Australian ranked higher than Auger-Aliassime, who beat Andrey Rublev 7-5 6-3 6-4 for just his second win over the Russian in nine attempts..
Yet the Canadian has won two of their three outings, through De Minaur defeated Auger-Aliassime in their most recent match last year.
It is the Australian’s second major quarter-final this year after his run to the last eight in his home major, where he found world No.1 Jannik Sinner far too strong.
He has also furthered his hopes of reaching the elite eight player ATP Tour Finals for the second straight year with his run in New York.
He has jumped Draper to move to seventh in this year’s tour race and another win would exchange his claims greatly.
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