In the latest coming-of-age performance of a fortnight that has been full of them, Jack Draper maintained his seamless progress at the US Open to become the first British man to reach the semi-finals since Murray won the title in 2012. Yet to drop a set in New York, the 22-year-old marked his maiden appearance in Arthur Ashe Stadium with a 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 win over Alex de Minaur, the Australian 10th seed, who was clearly hampered by a hip problem but never stopped fighting.

Draper likewise knows what it is to labour with injury, and as he sat at courtside afterwards removing the various straps and supports holding his battle-scarred body together, it was hard not to recall the various physical issues that have stalled his career, most notably when a shoulder injury forced him to miss Wimbledon last year. There was a brief scare here, too, when he called for the trainer early in the second set to get his right thigh strapped. But Draper has become accustomed to dealing with adversity, and his first act on returning to the fray was to batter down one of the 11 aces he produced on the day. 

“I’ve been working so hard for such a long time now,” said Draper. “Last year was a real turning point for me, when I had my injury setbacks and took a lot of time off over the summer because of my shoulder injury. 

“I had to watch all these young, amazing players winning amazing tournaments and playing on the biggest stages in the world, and I felt like I just wasn’t doing enough to get to that point myself. 

“So this is not an overnight thing for me. I’ve believed for a long time that I’m putting in the work and doing the right things, and I knew that my time would come. I didn’t know when it would be, but hopefully from here I can do a lot of amazing things.”

Draper’s progress to this point has certainly been remarkable. When the fortnight began with the British southpaw still smarting from the controversial conclusion to his win over Felix Auger-Aliassime in Cincinnati, where a double bounce went unnoticed by the chair umpire, few would have anticipated Draper emerging from a quarter headed by Carlos Alcaraz, the French Open and Wimbledon champion. But the Spaniard’s shock second-round defeat to Botic van de Zandschulp, combined with Hubert Hurkacz’s exit at the same stage, created an opportunity that Draper has gleefully embraced, dispatching Van de Zandschulp and Tomas Machac with minimal fuss before claiming the fourth top-10 win of his career against De Minaur. 

Naysayers will point out that none of those opponents came close to doing themselves justice, and that is true. Van de Zandschulp suffered a mental and emotional letdown following his win over Alcaraz, Machac’s game crumbled as rapidly as his composure, and De Minaur’s fleet-footed movement, perhaps his most dangerous weapon, was clearly compromised as he continues to manage the fallout from the torn hip cartilage that forced him to pull out of Wimbledon. Draper is sure to face a sterner test against Jannik Sinner, with whom he shares a close friendship, after the Italian world No 1 later saw off Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 to book his place in the last four. 

Yet you can do no more than beat the player on the opposite side of the net, and Draper has met every challenge he has faced with composure and maturity. That was particularly true of his tussle with De Minaur, where he avoided the pitfall of abandoning his gameplan in favour of trying to capitalise on his stricken opponent’s injury. There was a brief moment of crisis for Draper when, having held break points that would have given him a 5-2 lead in the second set, he instead found himself serving to stay in it at 4-5. To his credit, though, he immediately steadied himself to see out the set and, in short space, the most important win of his career.

“It is a challenge playing someone who maybe isn’t 100%,” said Draper. “Towards the end of the first set, I didn’t know that he was struggling with injury, but I definitely noticed he was a bit subdued. That made me realise he maybe had something slightly wrong, but then again maybe I was hurting a little bit as well. So it was a bit of a strange situation.

“I definitely felt in the second set I had a few opportunities, and it was there for me to take the set pretty early on, but I didn’t. I think part of that was to do with maybe focusing on myself too much, and not realising what was going on the other side of the court. 

“It’s tough, you know, I was playing someone who moves still pretty well and was making balls. It was kind of difficult to play the way I wanted to play, I started becoming more passive and was playing for him to miss instead of the playing the tennis that I’m supposed to be playing, which is to be aggressive, to be on the front foot.”

Whatever happens over the next few days, Draper is certainly on the front foot now. Comparisons with Emma Raducanu, whose surprise run from qualifying into the main draw culminated with a shock title win three years ago, are inescapable. As Raducanu would be the first to admit, however, the sport moves on; her title run is old news. British tennis has a new leading light – and, like Murray before him, Draper is forging his own path.

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But as the 37-year-old attempts to tread the fine line between reacclimatising his battle-worn body to the rigours of the sport he has graced, while avoiding injury for long enough to bid it a proper farewell, nothing can be taken for granted.

So as Nadal faced Alex de Minaur for the second time in less than a fortnight, there was nothing ordinary about the way he defied a 12-year age gap and a disparity of 501 places in the rankings to avenge his recent defeat at the Barcelona Open. On an afternoon of unbridled passion in the Spanish capital, Nadal was roared to the rafters beneath the closed roof of Estadio Manolo Santana, overcoming a rare moment of controversy and a tenacious fightback from the world No 11 to claim an impressive 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 victory.

Ten days after running out of steam against De Minaur in Barcelona, and in what might otherwise have been his final match on home soil, the win marked a small but significant step forward for Nadal. He has spoken of the need to manage his body in preparation for a possible final tilt at the French Open, where he has won 14 of his 22 grand slam titles, and has stressed that he will only play in Paris if his physical condition improves. The Spaniard’s performance against De Minaur offered grounds for cautious optimism on both fronts. 

Nadal clocked an average of 111mph on his first serve, a notable improvement on the 102mph he managed in Barcelona, and while that was fractionally less than he managed in a first-round demolition of the American teenager Darwin Blanch, it was nonetheless a promising sign that the hip and abdominal issues from which he has suffered this year are easing. His stamina and speed are not what they were, but Nadal is working within his physical constraints, and here that was enough to secure a first top-20 win since he defeated Casper Ruud at the 2022 ATP Finals.

“It needs time,” said the Spaniard, who will face Pedro Cachin of Argentina, ranked 91st, for a place in the last 16. “I think for moments it has been a good level of tennis. I was able to do positive things, but still on and off.  

“I’m super happy to be able to be competitive against a great player like Alex, play over two hours. 

“I really believe that tennis hasn’t been an issue for the last two years, more the physical issues, no? If I am able to play weeks in a row, and if I am able to play tennis, then I’m going to see how far I can go and how competitive I could be. That’s not the case yet – just step by step, let’s see how I recover.”

If there were any doubts about how much the occasion meant to Nadal and those connected with him, they were quickly dispelled. No sooner had he sealed the opening game than the stadium was reverberating to chants of his name; by the time he delivered a mighty whiplash forehand to create the platform for an early break, even his sister, Maria Isabel, was up on her feet brandishing a clenched fist. 

But as Nadal served to stretch his lead, his momentum was arrested by a contentious piece of officiating from the chair umpire, Fergus Murphy. At 15-30, De Minaur sent a return long, prompting the Spaniard to reply with a half-hearted backhand before gesturing to a mark behind the baseline. Murphy, however, did not deem it a clear request for a challenge and awarded the point to De Minaur, who had punctuated the exchange with an uncontested drop shot. The decision prompted a furious reaction from Nadal. 

“If I stop and mark the ball, that doesn’t mean that I want to challenge?” he demanded incredulously before demanding that Murphy call the supervisor. 

“I saw you stop, but I didn’t see you challenge,” replied Murphy as jeers echoed around the arena.

It was a rare outburst from Nadal, whose reputation as one of the fairest competitors on the men’s tour precedes him. Yet his frustration was understandable: the electronic line calling system showed De Minaur’s shot had indeed landed out, and the 25-year-old went on to break, winning four of the next five games. 

Nadal, though, was not to be denied. There were some nervy moments, first when a sequence of untimely errors landed him in trouble while serving at 5-5, then when De Minaur cancelled out four straight set points from 6-2 down in the tiebreak. But when an outrageous if slightly mistimed backhand winner brought up a fifth opportunity, Nadal made no mistake, forcing an error from the Australian with a violent topspin forehand to spark wild celebrations. With the atmosphere growing more febrile by the second, a brilliant piece of defensive play earned Nadal a break at the start of the second set, and from there he would not be caught. 

“You play in Barcelona, and then all of a sudden this match over here, everything doubles,” said De Minaur. “All the outside noise doubles. I wish I would have played better, but I think his level lifted, and he was looking quite good out there, if I may say.”

Whether it will be enough to convince Nadal that he is ready for a final shot at Roland Garros remains to be seen. By his own reckoning, he is not there yet. But a second straight win is a step in the right direction.

As for the more immediate outlook, the removal of Stefanos Tsitsipas from his path will have done Nadal’s prospects in Madrid no harm at all. The seventh-ranked Greek, who won a third Monte Carlo Masters title earlier this month, suffered a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Thiago Monteiro, a Brazilian qualifier ranked 118th. 

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The Spaniard showed all his trademark defiance after falling behind early on against Alex De Minaur, but the toll taken by 16 injury-ravaged months became increasingly apparent in the latter stages, Nadal losing nine of the last 10 games as he slipped to a 7-5, 6-1 defeat. 

While it was not the result the 37-year-old would have wished for at a club where the stadium court is named in his honour, the loss was neither unexpected nor disastrous. De Minaur, ranked 11th and mining a rich vein of form this season with 20 tour-level victories, was always likely to provide a sterner test of Nadal’s form and physicality than Flavio Cobolli, the 21-year-old Italian the former champion eased aside in his opening match.

Yet Nadal, who has said he is treating this year as his last on the professional tour, did enough to encourage the belief that, with a few more matches under his belt, he can bid farewell to Roland Garros next month in a manner befitting a 14-time champion. 

This was only Nadal’s fifth competitive outing since undergoing surgery on a hip injury he suffered at last year’s Australian Open, since when he has been further hampered by separate hip and abdominal problems. But having struggled initially to find his range off the ground, leaving him vulnerable to De Minaur’s frequent drop shots and wrong-footers, Nadal began to strike the ball with real authority. 

As his pace and depth led the fleet-footed Australian a merry dance along the baseline, Nadal won three straight games from 3-1 down. Had De Minaur not come up with a meaty plus-one forehand when facing a break point in the eighth game, the Spaniard would have served for the opening set. While it was not to be, it was a passage of play that promises to sustain Nadal in the weeks ahead as he builds towards Paris.

“I feel much more comfortable and much happier today than one week and a half ago,” said Nadal, whose prospects looked bleak when he withdrew from last week’s Monte Carlo Masters saying his body “would not allow” him to compete. 

“I was able to manage to play two matches. Playing against a great player, when I was able to play, I was not very far [away], without a doubt. That’s the way that I need to proceed today, and to give me a chance to be ready at least to compete at Roland Garros. 

“I don’t hide that, because in my tennis career I was able to play every single tournament at my highest level, trying to win tournaments, and I am not able to do it today. But I hope to be ready in a few weeks, and I’m going to try hard.”

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Now unbeaten in 15 matches, a run that stretches back to last November, when he spearheaded Italy’s first Davis Cup triumph in almost half a century, Sinner will rise to No 3 in the world on Monday, becoming the highest-ranked Italian player in history. He also becomes the first man to follow up his maiden grand slam victory with a title win since 2001, when Lleyton Hewitt won the US Open and Tokyo back-to-back.

De Minaur’s buoyant run to the final included wins over Grigor Dimitrov, another of the season’s most in-form players, and Andrey Rublev, the second seed. The 25-year-old gave another fine account of himself against Sinner, recovering from a break down in both sets, but was unable to claim a first victory in seven meetings with the Italian, who calmly held on for a 7-5, 6-4 win. 

“My team, we have done a really good job some weeks ago,” said Sinner, alluding to his triumph in Melbourne. “Now we made a very, very good job here. I’m really proud about the level I played throughout this whole week.

“We have been in a tough situation, but I guess we handled it the right way. We will always try to improve.”

That process of improvement has been evident for many months now, starting last summer at Wimbledon, where Sinner reached the first grand slam semi-final of his career, continuing with title wins in Toronto, Beijing and Vienna, and culminating with last month’s victory at Melbourne Park. In contrast with Carlos Alcaraz, his story has been one of incremental progress rather than stratospheric success. But on a weekend when Alcaraz was beaten in the Argentina Open semi-finals by Chile’s Nicolás Jarry, Sinner’s latest success was a reminder of the merits of a slow and steady approach. 

His latest milestone did not go unnoticed back home.

“Congratulations, champion,” Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, wrote on social media. “Thanks for the emotions you are giving to Italy.”  

Yet those emotions were doubtless in turmoil when the irrepressible De Minaur dramatically denied Sinner four set points as the top seed served for the opener at 5-4. A netted drop shot had cost De Minaur his serve in the fifth game, but the Australian’s tireless running and dexterity at the net left Sinner with scant wriggle room, and when he broke back by punctuating a 34-shot rally with a thumping forehand down the line that left the flailing Sinner flat on his back, it was still anyone’s match.

It did not take long for Sinner to alter that. In the next game, a brilliant crosscourt pass denied De Minaur a game point. That ought to have been warning enough for De Minaur, but when Sinner subsequently fired another pass on break point, the Australian ill-advisedly left it, only to see the ball drop just inside the baseline. Minutes later, Sinner sealed the set with his fourth and final ace.

The second set followed a similar pattern, De Minaur retrieving an early break only to fall behind again in the very next game after netting a backhand. Sinner would not be caught a second time.

“I asked him jokingly if he’s going to lose a match this year,” said De Minaur, who will rise to a career-high ranking of ninth on Monday. “He’s playing an incredible level and just too good.”

If Sinner can maintain his current trajectory, De Minaur will not be the last player this season to express such sentiments.

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But that proud record came to an end in Perth, where Alex De Minaur inflicted a 6-4, 6-4 defeat on the 24-time grand slam champion to give Australia the platform for a 3-0 United Cup quarter-final win over Serbia. 

Twelve months after De Minaur was, to use his own word, “embarrassed” by Djokovic in Rod Laver Arena, the world No 12 produced one of the finest performances of his career to win all but one of his 34 first serve points, claiming what he described as a “surreal” result.

Just as he when lost to Chung in 2018, however, Djokovic had to contend not only with an inspired opponent but also a nagging injury. For the elbow problem that culminated with surgery then, read a painful wrist that first showed signs of troubling him in Serbia’s group win over the Czech Republic now. 

Having received treatment on the area during a three-set win over Jiri Lehecka on Tuesday, Djokovic appeared distinctly unimpressed to be denied a medical timeout on the basis that the injury was a pre-existing one. 

“What are you talking about?” the Serb demanded of the physio after sending a forehand long to concede a break in the ninth game. “It’s an injury you treated yesterday. So the logic is that, if it continues getting worse the next day, you won’t treat it because it already occurred yesterday? I said it improved before the match, but the more I’m playing, it’s getting worse.”

The timing of the injury is clearly far from ideal Djokovic, who matched Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 grand slam titles at last year’s US Open and will be aiming to eclipse it with an 11th success in the stadium bearing her name when the Australian Open gets underway on 14 January. Yet we have been here before with the Serb, who triumphed at Melbourne Park with a torn hamstring last year and also hoisted the trophy in 2021 after tearing an abdominal muscle. Djokovic said he expected to be fit in time to defend his title.  

“I think I’ll be OK, to be honest,” said Djokovic. “It did have quite an impact, particularly on the forehand and serve. But again, I don’t want to be spending too much time talking about it and taking away credit for the victory from De Minaur.

“The [recovery] process is not strange to me. It’s not unusual. I’ve been in this kind of situation so many times and I know what I need to do, along with my team, to get myself ready.  

“[Two out of the last three years I’ve been injured just before Australian Open, and managed to win both Australian Opens. So I hope that I will not be injured this time around. That’s what we’re going to work on, to get my body in the right shape, optimal state, so that I can perform at a high level throughout, hopefully, the entire Australian Open.”

De Minaur sealed the opener with a wrong-footing forehand before holding his nerve down the stretch after Djokovic gifted him a break with a double fault in the seventh game. Pegged back from 40-0 as he served for the win, the Australian finally converted his fourth match point as Djokovic drove a backhand long. Ajla Tomljanovic subsequently defeated Serbia’s Natalija Stevanovic 6-1, 6-1 to give the home team an unassailable lead. 

“It’s hard to put into words,” said De Minaur. “It’s a very good feeling. Everything that could have gone well, went well today. I’m happy that I can say I got a win over the GOAT.”

Poland joined Australia in the last four, Hubert Hurkacz Hurkacz defeating Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 6-4 before Iga Swiatek recovered from 2-0 down to reel off nine straight games in a 6-2, 6-3 win over China’s Qinwen Zheng. Katarzyna Piter and Jan Zielinski then saw off You Xiaodi and Sun Fajing 6-3, 5-7, 10-7 to complete a 3-0 victory for the Group A winners.

“I feel like I’m playing well and making progress compared to last year,” said Swiatek, who has also notched up convincing wins over Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo and Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil in Perth. “I feel like I have more skills to play on these faster hard courts. 

“Obviously, every tournament is a different story. A grand slam, it’s always a little bit tougher, there’s more pressure. I’m just thinking about finishing this tournament well and we’ll see what’s going to happen in Melbourne.”

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The Spaniard’s march through the record books has been conducted at a similarly exponential rate. At the age of 20, Alcaraz has already become the youngest year-end No 1 in ATP Tour history, the youngest US Open champion in 32 years and the youngest grand slam winner since Rafael Nadal in 2005. 

Now, after a grand total of just 11 matches on grass, Alcaraz is also the youngest champion at Queen’s Club since Lleyton Hewitt in 2006 and a genuine contender for Wimbledon, where he will arrive in a week’s time as the top seed after a 6-4, 6-4 win over Australia’s Alex de Minaur. The victory, which saw him reclaim the world No 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic, makes Alcaraz the first man under the age of 21 to win his maiden final on grass since Richard Gasquet claimed the title in Nottingham 18 years ago.

The speed of Alcaraz’s transformation from grass-court rookie to grass-court champion has been nothing short of extraordinary. Six days ago, he came perilously close to an opening-round exit against Arthur Rinderknech, a lucky loser ranked 83 in the world. Since edging past the Frenchman in a third-set tiebreaker, Alcaraz has rattled off four straight wins against players ranked in the top 36 without dropping a set, visibly growing in authority and belief with each stinging forehand and acrobatic volley.

“I have a lot of confidence right now coming into Wimbledon,” said Alcaraz. “I ended the week playing at a high level, so right now I feel one of the favourites to win Wimbledon. 

“But honestly, I have to get more experience on grass. Even if I won the title, I just played 11 matches in my career on grass, so I have to get more experience, more hours. 

“But obviously after beating amazing guys, great players, and the level that I played, I consider myself one of the favourites.”

De Minaur held match points in his only previous meeting with Alcaraz, which came last year in Barcelona, and the 24-year-old once again caused his feted opponent plenty of problems with his flat, zippy groundstrokes. The depth and penetration of the Australian’s ball frequently made Alcaraz catch the ball fractionally late or forced him into improvisation. The Spaniard’s difficulties were compounded by De Minaur’s fleetness of foot: confronted by one of the few opponents able to match his own lightning speed, Alcaraz was unusually hesitant in deploying his signature drop shot.

These factors converged in the eighth game, where Alcaraz faced his only real crisis of the afternoon. It came after the Spaniard shaped to feather the ball short only to prod an approach shot towards the baseline. De Minaur was alive to the ploy and, having steered a precise passing shot down the line to reach deuce, he caught Alcaraz at his feet with a crisp backhand return to bring up the first break point of the match. Convert it, and he would serve for the first set.

Alcaraz averted the danger with a 137mph ace, but De Minaur immediately fashioned a second opportunity, producing a majestic backhand pass after chasing down a seemingly unreachable volley. This time, the elements came to Alcaraz’s rescue in the form of a strong breeze that brought some respite to what was an otherwise swelteringly hot afternoon. As the wind caused the ball to hold up in the air, De Minaur produced a tame forehand from which Alcaraz was able to force an error. The Australian would not see another break point.

“I don’t think they were turning points as such,” said De Minaur. “I think I had my opportunities there, and I had a kind of a short ball, and then a big gust of wind kind of made me overrun the ball a little bit.”

Be that as it may, Alcaraz went on to hold and, when De Minaur made a hash of an approach shot to fall break point down in the next game, the Spaniard was clinical, establishing himself in a rally he had no right to win with a scrambled return and a stretching sliced backhand, before abruptly changing the pace with a haymaker of a forehand. 

Ultimately, the reality of the contest was simple. Both men faced two break points. Alcaraz saved both while De Minaur, who double-faulted to fall behind in the fifth game of the second set, conceded both. 

The only cloud on Alcaraz’s horizon was the medical timeout he took at the end of the opening set to have his thigh strapped. He insisted afterwards that it would not be a problem. A greater obstacle, for all his exponential progress on a previously problematic surface, will be beating Djokovic over five sets at Wimbledon, where the Serbian holder will be aiming to equal Roger Federer’s haul of eight titles.

“I saw a statistic that Novak has won more matches in Wimbledon that the other top 20 players [put together],” said Alcaraz. 

“What can I say about that, you know? I mean, Novak is the main favourite to win Wimbledon. That’s obvious. But I will try to play at this level, to have chances to beat him or make the final. 

“I will have chances, that’s for sure. But I see Novak as the main favourite.”

On both counts, it is difficult to argue.

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Alcaraz defeated Sebastian Korda of the United States 6-3, 6-4 at Queen’s Club to reach the first grass-court final of his career, and the 20-year-old Spaniard will arrive at Wimbledon as the top seed if he can see off Alex de Minaur, a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) winner over Holger Rune, in Sunday afternoon’s final.

It would be a significant accomplishment for Alcaraz, who has been taken aback by his rate of progress at what is only the third grass-court tournament of his career. Since narrowly surviving his opening match against Arthur Rinderknech, a lucky loser ranked 83 in the world who took him to a final-set tiebreak, the US Open champion has gone from strength to strength. 

Far from his usual zippy self against Rinderknech, when he struggled at times to regain his balance and court positioning when pulled wide, Alcaraz has improved with each passing round. Having seen off Jiri Lehecka and former Wimbledon semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets to make the last four, Alcaraz oozed class and authority against Korda, dictating the baseline exchanges with his big forehand and frequently showcasing his touch and dexterity at the net. It was every inch a display worthy of the world’s best player. 

“Obviously during the match I’m not thinking about that, but it is an extra motivation for me, to go into the final with extra energy,” said Alcaraz of the prospect of reclaiming the No 1 ranking he first earned at Flushing Meadows last September. 

“I’m going to go for it. Obviously being top seed at Wimbledon, being No 1, for me, it’s still a dream, something that I work on. 

“I think Novak and I, we are having a beautiful fight, you know, for the No 1.”

After the disappointment of Roland Garros, where the tension of a massively hyped semi-final meeting with Djokovic manifested itself in a debilitating attack of cramp that effectively rendered Alcaraz lame after two sets, a return to the top ranking would be a welcome fillip for the Spaniard ahead of his arrival in SW19. The impact in real terms would, of course, be negligible, given the gulf in experience between Alcaraz and the seven-time Wimbledon champion, but the strides taken by Alcaraz this week are nonetheless unlikely to have gone unnoticed in the Djokovic camp. By way of context, Rafael Nadal needed three attempts to win at Queen’s; Alcaraz has the opportunity to do it first time around.

“I surprised myself, honestly, with the level that I’m playing right now,” said Alcaraz. “How I’m feeling on court, I didn’t expect to feel that in just six days. 

“I came here just to get experience, to get out on court and practise and play with these kinds of players. It is a good preparation for Wimbledon, but I didn’t expect at the beginning of the week that I’m going to be in the final and playing such a good level.”

If Alcaraz is to pass the test that awaits on Sunday, he will need to maintain that level against De Minaur, whose grass-court credentials include a title win in Eastbourne two years ago and a run to the last 16 at Wimbledon last summer. The Australian world No 18 was in control from the outset against Rune, who lost his opening service game after an error-strewn start and could not capitalise on a pair of break points that would have left him serving for the second set.

“Carlos, he’s finding his footing on grass and playing some great tennis as well,” said De Minaur, the seventh seed, who will be aiming to become the first Australian champion at Queen’s since Lleyton Hewitt in 2006. 

“It’s going to be an absolute battle. I’ll try to do a bit like I did today and play my game and try to dictate myself and not get pushed around.”

Given the firepower at Alcaraz’s disposal, that is easier said than done. It promises to be an intriguing afternoon.

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Djokovic has likened the hamstring injury with which he has been contending at the Australian Open to a rollercoaster, one that starts smoothly, dips suddenly and unexpectedly, then proceeds in peaks and troughs according to how long the painkillers last. Yet it is hardly the first grand slam puzzle he has faced, and the Serb has alighted on a simple but characteristically efficient solution: prolong the trouble-free period for as long as possible.

Against Alex De Minaur, the Australian 22nd seed, that entailed taking the ball on the rise, abbreviating the points with powerful and precise ball-striking, and serving with regal authority to claim an emphatic victory in a shade over two hours. It was barely enough time for Djokovic’s hamstring even to register that he was in a fight – although to call it such would be a stretch.

This was a statement performance from the nine-time champion, who showed no sign of injury beyond the heavy strapping on his left leg as he sealed a 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 win to move into his 54th grand slam quarter-final.

“Definitely the best tennis I’ve played this year, this tournament, so far this season,” said Djokovic, who has received exhaustive treatment on his hamstring. “I’m really glad to manage to win the way I did tonight, to feel really great in terms of mobility and movement of my leg.

“I didn’t feel any pain. I moved as well as I have the whole tournament. It means we are progressing in the right direction. 

“A week ago, I didn’t really think about the title, I just thought about being in a good enough condition to play the next match. Tonight, the way I played, the way I felt, gives me reason now to believe that I can go all the way.”

It was hard to disagree with that assessment. Djokovic remains the clear title favourite and Andrey Rublev, the fifth seed, no doubt spoke for most of his peers when he said during an on-court interview: “No one wants to face Novak. I prefer to be in any other part of the draw, but not Novak.” 

Much to his mortification, Rublev was then reminded that Djokovic, who had not yet played, would later face an Aussie. “Sorry, sorry,” he replied, much to the amusement of the locals. Given that he will meet Djokovic next, the joke may yet be on the apologetic Russian.

For his part, De Minaur had little enough to laugh about. Yet, willed on by a raucous home crowd – sections of which once again tried to heckle and harass Djokovic – the 23-year-old hardly played badly. A model of focus and professionalism from the first ball to the last, he never stopped fighting, doggedly disregarding the scoreline and even willingly extending the agony as he saved a match point in the penultimate game. 

It was all to no avail. De Minaur is a fine player, as he demonstrated with his recent United Cup win over Rafael Nadal, but his greatest asset is his speed – and even that was of little benefit on a night when he was repeatedly rushed by the velocity and accuracy of Djokovic’s groundstrokes. With the former world No 1 in imperious mood, the absence of a big shot fatally undermined the Australian’s challenge. De Minaur’s tally of just nine winners to his opponent’s 26 told its own story. 

“I think what I experienced today was probably Novak very close to his best,” said De Minaur. “To me, if that’s the level, I think he’s definitely the guy that’s going to take the title.

“You tell me how you thought he looked out there. Playing him, I thought he was moving pretty well. 

“Everyone’s seen what’s been happening over the couple weeks. It’s the only thing everyone’s been talking about. Today I was out there on court against him. Either I’m not a good enough tennis player to expose that, or… it looked good to me. 

Asked afterwards by Jim Courier how he had been able to win so convincingly, Djokovic offered an ominous reply. 

“Because I wanted to,” he intoned impassively, as though he were tennis’s answer to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. “I cannot say I’m sorry that you haven’t watched a longer match. I really wanted to win in straight sets.”

Rublev doubtless felt the same. The Russian was instead forced to toil long and hard by Denmark’s Holger Rune, saving two match points as he clawed his way back from 5-2 down in the fifth set and 5-0 down in the climactic tiebreak before finally prevailing 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (11-9) – via a net cord winner on match point.

“It’s probably the luckiest moment of my life,” said Rublev. “Now I can go to the casino. If I put [money on], for sure I’m going to win.”

Ben Shelton came through a battle of former US college players, the 20-year-old world No 89 edging a 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 decision against JJ Wolf. Shelton, playing only his second grand slam and competing outside the US for the first time, will play another American in the last eight after Tommy Paul defeated Roberto Bautista Agut, the Spanish 24th seed, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Neither man has previously contested a major quarter-final.

“It’s every person’s dream when they start playing tennis to play the big matches at the slams,” said the unseeded Paul, aged 25 and ranked 35th. “I’m really excited to get out there on Wednesday. We know there’s going to be an American in the semis, so I’m really excited about that, too.”

For Djokovic, meanwhile, it is too early to think about excitement. We know what he has come for, and it is not a place in the last eight. He is the only grand slam champion remaining in the draw, and a 10th title at Melbourne Park would haul him level with Nadal on 22 majors. With his injury concerns dissipating, for the time being at least, the gateway to glory is ajar. No one knows better how to prise it open.

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