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.
Four. That is how many US Open titles Novak Djokovic has already won, and the draw made on 27 August 2026 puts him on course to meet Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion who also won the title in 2022, in the semi-final. Both are seeded in the same half of the 128-player field; play starts on 30 August.
Draw taleSix. Arthur Fils won the third set of the Cincinnati Open final 6-0, the exact reverse of the 1-6 second set Frances Tiafoe had just taken off him. Fils closed out the match 6-3 1-6 6-0 for his first Cincinnati title.
Match tale