ATP Tour

De Minaur surging at Wimbledon: 'I think this is when I'm my most dangerous'

Could this be the tournament where Alex de Minaur makes his biggest Grand Slam breakthrough yet?

The fifth seed clawed past Zachary Svajda 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 41 minutes on Saturday to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the third consecutive year.

“I feel great. I'm happy to get through the first week. This is the first goal of the tournament, obviously,” De Minaur said. “It's getting down to crunch time, I guess. I'm happy with the way I have been playing. The body is feeling great. I thought today was probably the best I moved around the court. I'm feeling confident sliding from both sides, which is a key aspect.

“Yeah, now it's about building, right? Take what's in front of you. Don't look too far ahead. Keep that tunnel vision. That's basically it.”

After falling to Jakub Mensik in the third round at Roland Garros, the Czech surged to the semi-finals and pushed eventual champion Alexander Zverev to four sets. De Minaur did not fall short in the third round again.

The Australian star broke his opponent’s serve eight times and won 70 per cent of his second-serve return points to keep his hopes alive.

“I thought it was a high-quality match. A lot of credit to Zach. He's an immensely talented player, and made my life very, very difficult,” De Minaur said. “I was happy that I was able to stay strong mentally and stay with that level and keep that level throughout the third and fourth sets. And I felt that that was key to get the win today.”

The Impact of the Alex de Minaur Foundation:

World No. 66 Svajda was competing just four places off his career high in the PIF ATP Rankings. And the 23-year-old American showed he can go toe to toe with the best players in the world, even when he had never previously competed in the Wimbledon main draw.

“Zach's got incredible timing off the ball. You know, the first set threw me off probably a little bit. I thought he probably didn't start the best he could,” De Minaur said. “Then the contrast from the first to the second was pretty big. He started being a lot more aggressive, hitting through the ball, changing directions a lot more. I felt like my slice was being quite effective in the first set, and then it became ineffective.

“He's a smart player, and I think we both kind of play somewhat similar. We both like to move the ball around the court. Probably don't have the highest revolutions on the balls. So it made for quite some, in my eyes, entertaining tennis.”

De Minaur knows it will not get any easier moving forward, with the 11-time ATP Tour titlist set to play Roland Garros finalist Flavio Cobolli for a spot in the quarter-finals. Cobolli rallied past 19th seed Karen Khachanov 0-6, 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2 in four hours. 

“It was too early,” Cobolli joked of his slow start. “I felt some strange feeling on my stomach and then the doctor helped me.”

The last five-set match Cobolli played was in the Roland Garros final against Alexander Zverev. But even though he needed four sets in each of his first two matches at Wimbledon, the 24-year-old was able to dig deep to battle past Khachanov.

De Minaur leads Cobolli 2-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, but they have not met since 2024.

“I do think that I'm going to have to step it up in the next match. But saying that, I feel like I'm playing at a high level,” De Minaur said. “I feel like I'm where I want to be. I'm in a good position. Body's feeling good. Mentally I'm feeling fresh. I think this is when I'm my most dangerous. I'm hoping that I can put two and two together and play a good match.”