Alex de Minaur overcomes the Stefanos Tsitsipas hurdle

Alex de Minaur has been having a banner 2024. He has risen to the Top 10 and played the best tennis of his career. Tennis fans reserved judgment on whether he was the real deal because he was winless in his career against Stefanos Tsitsipas.

In ten tries, de Minaur could not crack the Tsitsipas code. For this reason, fans could not wait to see the quarterfinal match in Acalpulco between the two players. Many thought de Minaur's best chance was on Thursday.

It turns out those fans were correct. De Minaur defeated Tsitsipas by coming from behind after dropping the first set 1-6. In the final two sets, he won the match 6-3, 6-3. The wind was a factor that both players had to adapt to.

What De Minaur said about his win

De Minaur was relieved to get the win over Tsitsipas, but the 25-year-old Australian was the quintessential sportsman when talking about it after the match. He said: "Every time I've got to play him I get reminded about my [record in the] matchup. I'm glad I got one on the board. I would like to say that no one beats me 11 times in a row, but hey...Stefanos has had my number for a very long time, so I'm glad to get one back."

De Minaur advances to the semifinals the year after winning the title in Acapulco. This many not sound significant, but in tournament history, the last person to do that was David Ferrer in 2013. This tournament is dominated by Spanish champions like Ferrer, Rafael Nadal, and Carlos Moya. De Minaur and Nick Kyrgios are the only Australians to ever win the event.

De Minaur faces British player Jack Draper in the semifinals on Friday. The other semifinal is between Casper Ruud and Holger Rune.

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