Every year in a house a few minutes’ walk from Wimbledon, the greats of Australian tennis gather for the “Aussie Barbecue”, a celebration of some of the true legends of the sport. This year, Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall were honoured, while the likes of Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Stosur were among those who chatted away and listened to stories of some of their incredible exploits.
Alex de Minaur was not among them, the 25-year-old focusing on his third-round match the following day. While De Minaur eventually received a walkover into the next round, it was a sensible choice from one of the most dedicated, hard-working players on the tour who has been enjoying the best 12 months of his career. On Wednesday, the Australian No 1 has the chance to put his name alongside some of those legends, if – and it’s a big if – he can beat the seven-time champion Novak Djokovic.
It’s a task that has been beyond most people at Wimbledon, with Djokovic losing only three times since his defeat to Andy Murray in the 2013 final. But though the world No 2’s recovery from knee surgery in the second week of the French Open has been little short of miraculous, the 37-year-old has been reluctant to slide to his forehand and admitted to Serbian media that he is far from 100%, even if his form has improved with each round.
De Minaur will go into the match with belief that he can exploit any weakness in Djokovic’s movement, although there is also concern about the Australian’s fitness after he appeared to jar his ankle at the end of his fourth-round victory over the Frenchman, Arthur Fils. Speaking on Monday night, De Minaur said he would be OK and Todd Woodbridge, the former doubles No 1 who working at Wimbledon for Australian TV, said he’d heard he would be fit. Woodbridge gives him a fighting chance, if he is ruthless.
“I think he’s got possibly the best chance he’s had in his career to beat one of these big guys in a slam tournament,” Woodbridge said. “I guess the issue is him coming up fit; by all accounts he’s fine, so that’s good, but that match point was very, very awkward. Novak is getting better so Alex is going to have to play the match of his life, but he’s been in a quarter-final before.
“You’ve got to test him all the time with his movement. Alex is a great mover, but on grass one of the key things is getting the opponent moving forward and then going back behind because they’re the movements that can tweak knees and all that. Sounds nasty, but we’re here for the win.”
De Minaur has beaten Djokovic before, at the United Cup in January, although Djokovic won when they met in Monte-Carlo in April. That, though, was on clay; this is grass, where De Minaur’s flat groundstrokes should get more reward.
Nenad Zimonjic, the Serbian doubles star who briefly worked with Djokovic earlier this year, appreciates the difficulty De Minaur brings. “I would say if Novak is 100% fit I don’t think he would fear him at all,” he said. “Now the question is how his body is, how the knee is going to react if they have longer rallies. That’s the only question. Yes, De Minaur doesn’t have big weapons like some other players but he’s very consistent, very quick. He improved his game, first serve is better, he is coming more to the net. So that’s the addition to his game. And that shows in the results that he’s been having this year.”
De Minaur reached his first slam quarter-final at Roland-Garros last month and won the warm-up event on grass in the Netherlands. The form is there and if he can improve his first-serve percentage, which has been the only area of his game not quite firing on all cylinders and providing he is fully fit himself, the surface should help his chances too as he tries to become the 14th Australian man to make the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
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“I think grass suits his game because he plays pretty flat and the ball stays low, which is good for him,” he said. “And he is an unbelievable mover. Physically very fit, one of the quickest guys on tour. So it’s not going to be easy. He’s got great support from his team, then also Lleyton is here, who can help him a lot. So it’s going to be a very, very tough test for Novak.”
Hewitt secured his place in Wimbledon history when he won the title in 2002. If De Minaur can find a way to get past Djokovic, with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in the other half, he will give himself a chance to do just the same.
