Alex De Minaur seeking career-high feat ahead of Australian Open revenge clash
The Aussie could create history with another win at the Rotterdam Open.
Alex de Minaur is looking to reach a career-high ranking of World No.9 ahead of a rematch with Andrey Rublev at the Rotterdam Open. De Minaur has, for the second time this year, cracked the top 10 having moved past Casper Ruud in the live rankings.
The Aussie has continued his phenomenal form over from the Australian Open having defeated David Goffin in the round of 16 to move into the Rotterdam Open quarter-final. It marks the 24-year-old's third appearance in the quarter final at the event.
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De Minaur has moved to 8-2 to start 2024 and is hoping he can add three more wins to his record to take out the tournament. However, standing in his way is World No.5 Rublev.
The smiling Russian defeated de Minaur in a five-set thriller at the Australian Open, leaving the Aussie shattered in front of his home fans. The two will now meet again with a win for de Minaur surely enough to keep him in the top 10 rankings ahead of next week, regardless of the results elsewhere.
De Minaur briefly entered the top 10 back in January, which saw him become the first Aussie male tennis player to achieve the feat since his mentor Lleyton Hewitt. A win against Rublev in the quarter-final will see de Minaur move into World No.9 and only Grigor Dimitrov or Taylor Fritz could move in front if they were to reach the final of the their current tournaments.
The Australian will have plenty of points to gain in the coming months leading into Indian Wells and the Miami Open. De Minaur was eliminated in the round of 64 in both tournaments last year and will be looking to build on his momentum and cement his position in the top 10.
Alex de Minaur sends message to Katie Boulter
While de Minaur is in Rotterdam, he could only send a Valentine's Day message to his parter and professional tennis player Katie Boulter. De Minaur and British No.1 Boulter weren't able to spend the special day together due to their tennis schedules.
"That's the tough part of the tennis tours, that we didn't get to spend some of these special days together," de Minaur said this week, admitting he would have fancied a romantic dinner with his lady. He posted a previously-taken photo of himself and Boulter relaxing by the pool in Capri on social media, writing: "Happy Valentines Katie Boulter. Can we go back already!?"
The 24-year-old hasn't shown any signs of a lingering hangover after his crushing five-set loss to Rublev at Melbourne Park. It marked the fourth time in his career that de Minaur has fallen in the fourth round of a grand slam, and he's only ever made the quarters once (US Open 2020).
This prompted him to drop back to World No.11. De Minaur's win over the 33-year-old Goffin - a former top-10 player - was even more convincing than his victory over Korda in the previous round.
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