On Melbourne’s hottest day, he was sunburnt by tennis’ brightest star. But Alex de Minaur is getting closer

As Alex de Minaur’s Australian Open dream was dashed for another year by a remarkable rival, above Rod Laver Arena rose a vivid half moon that seemed almost sunburnt in colour.

It may not have been scorched by the sun, but just as Victoria was burnt on a blazing day, de Minaur was ultimately dismissed by the blistering weapons of the electrifying Carlos Alcaraz.

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It was a daunting task before the world No.1 opened the Australian Open quarterfinal with a forehand winner down the line. He ended that service game with another one cross court.

Alcaraz then whipped a ferocious backhand for another winner on the opening point of the Australian’s first service game. It was truly breathtaking tennis and set the tone for the match.

As a result, the Australian exits Melbourne Park with the familiar questions swirling as to whether he can ever make the moon landing, if he can somehow close on Alcaraz and co.

De Minaur keeps getting better, as anyone who witnessed the quarterfinal will know, but the moon still seems so far, effectively in another stratosphere given Alcaraz’s ability.

Tennis players are famous for having the memory of a goldfish. They must, for more often than not they leave vanquished rather than victorious, with Alcaraz among the exceptions.

But de Minaur has now reached seven of the past nine grand slam quarterfinals and been unable to take one step, let alone the three necessary to win a grand slam, each time.

“Obviously proud to have made another quarter-final here, back to back, it wasn’t easy,” he said post-match.

“Would’ve loved to have given more out there tonight – a little bit disappointed by the performance.

“You try and do the right things, you try and keep improving, but when the results don’t come – when the scoreline doesn’t reflect those improvements (since 12 months ago) – of course you feel quite deflated.”

This was not an attempt that went down in flames, by any measure. He played extremely well in an encounter where the extraordinary athleticism of both men was on display.

But against Alcaraz, who is now within two victories in Melbourne of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam, exceptionalism is not enough.

When assessing the match, dual US Open champion Pat Rafter said the 26-year-old would need every dice roll to go his way while also hoping his rival was three to four per cent off.

Neither of those things happened, though for a significant period of the match, only the finest margins separated the combatants until the final set blowout by the brilliant world No.1.

It was by red-lining that de Minaur was able to push a thrilling first set to five-all, showing exceptional fight to force the Spaniard to go for more, to adopt a change of strategy himself.

Alcaraz has one of the finest drop shots tennis has seen, perhaps the best ever. But so fast is de Minaur around the court, he was able to deploy only once in the first 40 minutes.

But he has so many other weapons in his repertoire and it was the vicious spin and tremendous depth of his groundstrokes that proved too much for the Demon to deal with.

De Minaur lived up to his pre-match promise to live by the sword, even if he was unable to seize the net with anywhere near the regularity Aussie greats of the past hoped he would.

That was due to those groundstrokes of the Spaniard, with the weight of his forehand and backhand making it almost a suicide mission to come forward with any hope of success.

“You can’t play just to get it in because he won’t miss. You have to hit it hard,” de Minaur was told by his long-time coach at one stage, according to a Spanish speaker on social media.

“It’s just that I can’t hit it any harder already,” was de Minaur’s reply.

De Minaur’s strengths – an excellent and consistent all-surface player – actually harm him in one respect: giving him an 0-19 combined career record against Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

It is only because de Minaur is good enough to consistently reach the pointy end of tournaments, and thus consistently face the two best players on tour, that he has amassed such a record so quickly.

He had a golden opportunity to reach a slam semi final in New York last year, when Felix Auger-Aliassime stood across the net in a quarter-final. That chance went begging, but similar one will appear in front of him eventually.

It may be at Wimbledon, which suits his game well. But eventually luck will be on his side – somewhere.

In an era with a clear big two and a group of either flawed or old challengers, he is good enough to be No.3.

“I can look at it for the fact I’m losing at the Australian Open to Rafa, Novak, Jannik twice, now Carlos – I’m not losing too many matches to players I shouldn’t lose to,” de Minaur said.

“So you’ve just got to keep on moving, that’s the only way.”

The perception that he needed to redline to beat Alcaraz – albeit an accurate one – also had an impact on his serve.

In his preceding wins against Fraces Tiafoe and Alex Bublik, the Aussie landed more than 60 percent of his first serves.

Against Alcaraz the percentage sat at or just below 50 percent throughout the first set and while it improved to 55 percent by the end of the match, it was never going to be enough. Then again, even at 100 percent one senses the Spaniard would have found a way, so well is he playing.

“I was playing out of my comfort zone, and sometimes out of my skin,” de Minaur said.

“But I’ve got to feel comfortable playing like that for the whole match to take it to the next level, especially against these types of guys.”

In a sport where the finest margins separate the players, the Aussie’s spirited charge was ultimately killed off when a cross court forehand clipped the tape and bounced out.

That gave Alcaraz the set point and as the ball landed, both men turned almost in unison to their coaches sitting in the on-court pod not too far from the baseline.

Alcaraz, who is through to his first semi-final at Melbourne Park, had a look of defiance.

But on the opposite side of the net, the disappointment was evident on de Minaur’s face.

Just under two hours later, as Alcaraz divulged on court with dual-champion Jim Courier that he had saved his best tennis at this Australian Open, the camera panned to de Minaur in the locker room.

The Aussie had not obliterated his racquet, a la Coco Gauff after her quarterfinal loss.

But as he sat on a bench in the weights room, with his team including Lleyton Hewitt surrounding him, the confusion evident as an unsettling reality started to sink in.

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, and none are trying harder than the Aussie, there is no answer to greatness. He will keep shooting for the moon, but he may never make it.

– with Max Laughton