They call him the Demon, and the name is about how he plays, not what his surname sounds like. Alex De Minaur covers a court the way few in the sport ever have, chasing down balls that look gone and turning defence into offence a stride later. That speed and stubbornness carried the Sydney man to a career-high of world No. 6 in July 2024, and he has long been Australia's No. 1, the heir to a tradition that expects grit before flash. He has 11 career titles, most of them earned by simply outlasting bigger hitters until they blinked.
At the majors the wall has held everywhere and cracked nowhere quite enough. De Minaur has reached the quarter-finals at all four Grand Slams, the US Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Australian Open, each run ending against the game's heaviest artillery. He is a fixture in those rounds against players like Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas, the rivalries that measure exactly how far relentless retrieving can take a man in an era of giants. The title he wants most is still out there, and he keeps running at it.
Thirty. That is how many places Luca Van Assche gained after winning the Estoril title, from No. 78 to a career-best No. 48 in the ATP rankings. He was one of two Frenchmen with a tour-level title this week: Quentin Halys won Kitzbuhel and rose 31 places to No. 52. Neither result stirred the top of the list, where Jannik Sinner stayed unmoved at No. 1.
Ranking tale106. That is how many singles matches Novak Djokovic has now won at Wimbledon, one more than Roger Federer’s 105, the record he tied in the previous round and passed today by beating the qualifier Roman Safiullin 7-6(6) 6-3 3-6 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
Match tale