A remarkable 39 per cent of de Minaur’s serves were unreturned – outstripping the mighty Bublík’s own rate – and he committed a meager 10 unforced errors compared to 19 winners in the elite show.
He also sent more unreturned serves than Tiafoe in the previous round. The serve is the part of de Minaur’s arsenal that is criticized more than any other, but it has been a weapon in this latest run at Melbourne Park.
Alex de Minaur, right, of Australia congratulates Alexander Bublik, left, of Kazakhstan in the following fourth round match.Credit: AP
Bublík’s downfall began from the moment de Minaur struggled with a baseline war in the 10th game of the opening set.
A key part of this was de Minaur hurting the Kazakh with some quality deep returns that finally put him in control of some points after Bublík did a good job at this stage to push the Aussie star deeper down the court than he would have liked.
Facing double break point, a double fault sealed Bublík’s fate in the first set – and the unraveling from there was as swift as it was stunning.
The world number 10 Bublík landed 81 per cent of his first serves in the second set and 70 per cent in the third, numbers that would normally hardly beat him, yet he won just 18 of those points during that period, which he then lamented.
“The score says how difficult it is [to play de Minaur] because I think I served well,” Bublík said.
“I mean, especially the second and third set, I was serving over 70 percent and I won [a low number of those] points. Unfortunately, it was all one-sided. It’s not what I wanted. It wasn’t what I was preparing for, but that’s tennis.”
Bublík audibly complained about the speed of the court during the encounter and doubled down after the match after playing on the faster Margaret Court Arena surface for most of the tournament. But he acknowledged that it was his fault for not adapting to the conditions.
Everywhere you looked, de Minaur had a bublik covered in form. Those all-important 0-4 rally rallies? De Minaur won those points 57-35 and also had the upper hand whenever the exchanges went longer.
Bublík’s impatience cost him repeatedly as, like Tiafoe before him, he regularly struggled to find a way through de Minaur and resorted to trying to hit bigger and more aggressively, which too often resulted in him falling short.
He barely hit more winners than de Minaur, but committed more than three times as many unforced errors. It was a recipe for disaster.
The only hope for Bublík, going two sets down, was whether de Minaur had any mental scars left after his collapse from the same position in Paris last year. But this is the new and improved de Minaur, who raced to a 4-0 lead in the third set before running out.
Alcaraz, who is just one Australian Open title away from completing his Grand Slam collection, did not drop a set at Melbourne Park as he reached his third quarter-final in the country.
He never got past that stage at the Open, but boasts a 5-0 head-to-head record with de Minaur, although each match was competitive. It is their first clash at a major.
“I have one of the toughest tasks ahead of me, so I’ll make sure I bring everything I’ve got,” said de Minaur.
“It helps that I feel quite fresh and it will be a physical battle. There are many things that Carlos does incredibly well on the tennis court and one of them is to make the rally quite physical.”
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“I’m looking forward to what’s to come. Hopefully it’s going to be a battle and it’s going to be a long one.”
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