Alex de Minaur has, very quietly, been carving his way through the US Open draw.
The Australian is an often overlooked asset of the ATP Tour, who consistently performs to an impressively high standard throughout the year.
He never lets anyone down and routinely makes it far into almost every competition he enters.
For that, he must be commended.
However, it is that consistency which often sees him unfairly categorised as a hard-working player with less technical talent than his peers.
Andy Roddick, speaking on his Served with Andy Roddick podcast, has sought to correct that and another myth he’s been hearing.
Andy Roddick on what he’s heard people say about Alex de Minaur
He stated: “I am going to tell you right now, anyone who says that Demon is just fast and a counter puncher has not watched him play.
“The guy is all over the net. He is able to redirect flat to both sides. He does the thing where the ball is hanging, and he knows, which is something Connors taught me, he has decided that he’s going in before he hits the approach shot.
“He has great volleys. Anyone who says he is a retriever or a counter puncher has not watched him and they’re lazy. And they realise he is not really tall and not that fast, and he doesn’t serve great.
“His serve stats are good, but that’s because of the rest of his game. If you isolate his serve and put it with a guy 80 in the world, that person is now 100 in the world.”
Then asked why Alex de Minaur is so impressive on hard courts, with the US Open having historically been his best-performing major, the former world number one continued: “The movement. He can stop and start and get out of the corners. But this lazy narrative of he’s not 6ft 5, so therefore he must be a retriever because he does not serve big.
“He does not blunt force trauma you from the baseline; he bleeds you and then gets in. The guy is a great tennis player.”
De Minaur was gifted a golden opportunity at the US Open, with his draw opening up. Thus far, he appears to be taking advantage of that.
Can Alex de Minaur break his worrying Grand Slam record?
De Minaur, similar to Andrey Rublev, has something of a mental block when it comes to Grand Slams.
After all, whilst he has reached the quarter-finals on five occasions before this US Open, he has yet to ever surpass that stage.
It marks a worrying trend for the 26-year-old, who will not want to end up with an issue that only gets worse with each new major.
| Year | Event | Opponent | Result |
| 2025 | Australian Open | Jannik Sinner | Loss |
| 2024 | US Open | Jack Draper | Loss |
| 2024 | Wimbledon | Novak Djokovic | Loss |
| 2024 | French Open | Alexander Zverev | Loss |
| 2020 | US Open | Dominic Thiem | Loss |
With Felix Auger-Aliassime next up, he may arguably never get a better chance to finally take that next step and make it into a semi-final.
It will be really interesting to see if De Minaur takes his opportunity, or once again melts under the pressure of his own quarter-final hoodoo.
