De Minaur Reaches Queen's Club QFs As Karatsev Falls
Alex de Minaur and John Millman are close friends. Millman even stayed with De Minaur in Spain to train in the lead-up to Roland Garros. But on Wednesday, only one of the Aussies was able to advance at the cinch Championships.
De Minaur beat Millman 6-1, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals and took a 3-0 lead in their ATP Head2Head series.
“I’m very close to Johnny, so I want him to do as well as possible and would have loved for him to be on the other side of the draw and go deep,” De Minaur said. “In a way, it also brings a certain level of respect towards the match and in some ways it actually helps me. I can kind of tell myself to be more focused and try to worry about my side of the court more. I think I handled that very well today and [I am] very happy with my performance.”
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De Minaur has never lost more than four games in a set against Millman. The fourth seed broke the 32-year-old’s serve five times to set a clash against Marin Cilic. He is into his second consecutive grass-court quarter-final after making the last eight in Stuttgart last week.
“It’s a surface that I feel like I adapt pretty quickly to,” De Minaur said. “I’ve gotten two good wins here, so it’s a work in progress, I’m getting better every week and I’m just enjoying this part of the season.”
The Aussie's next opponent, former World No. 3 Cilic, eliminated Italian eighth seed Fabio Fognini 6-3, 7-6(4).
The Croatian has long enjoyed success on this surface, having won the cinch Championships in 2012 and 2018 and reached the Wimbledon final in 2017. Last week, Cilic won the MercedesCup title in Stuttgart.
De Minaur’s doubles partner, Cameron Norrie, also moved on in the singles draw. The British lefty upset 2021 breakthrough star Aslan Karatsev 7-5, 6-2.
“A huge win for me and definitely a big step up from my first round on Monday,” Norrie said in his on-court interview. “All credit to him, he’s having a great year. He’s won a lot this year, so it’s a huge win for me and another match on the grass. It’s all invaluable stuff.”
Norrie, like Karatsev, has had the best season of his career. This was his personal-best 27th win of the year and he is into his first grass-court tour-level quarter-final since Eastbourne in 2018. The 25-year-old will next play Alexander Bublik or countryman Jack Draper.