De Minaur counts positives but says defeat by Sinner feels like a slap

Alex de Minaur said a humbling defeat by Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Wednesday felt like a slap across the face after a period of improvement in which he emerged as his nation’s best hope of ending a major drought.

De Minaur crashed to a 6-3 6-2 6-1 defeat by the defending champion in an hour and 48 minutes, ensuring his country’s wait for a homegrown Grand Slam men’s singles champion since Mark Edmondson’s triumph in 1976 would continue.

A 10th defeat by Sinner in as many meetings took off some sheen from an otherwise strong fortnight for the world number eight at Melbourne Park.

“The positives, how I handled everything … the fact that I came in this year as a top 10 with a lot of expectations, a lot of pressure. The whole country wanted me to do well. I wanted to do well here,” De Minaur told reporters.

“I would have loved to do more today, but this is what happens sometimes in tennis.

“The negative is after playing some great tennis on home soil and gaining so much, you feel like you’ve just been slapped across the face, to be honest, to finish off like that.”

De Minaur said he had felt similar dejection after a loss to 24-times major champion Novak Djokovic a couple of years ago.

“I’ll survive and keep improving. I need to sit with my team and figure out a way to hurt Jannik on the court,” he added.

“That’s ultimately the way we’ve got to look at it and find different ways because at the moment we don’t have it. So back to the drawing board, like I’ve done my whole career.

“I don’t think that this is my ceiling. I’ve got more in the tank.”