De Minaur downs Michelsen to keep home hopes alive at Australian Open

MELBOURNE :Alex De Minaur kept the home flag flying at the Australian Open as he beat rising American Alex Michelsen 6-0 7-6(5) 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time on Monday.

The 25-year-old has now reached the last eight at every Grand Slam and will face top seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner for a place in the semis.

Eighth seed De Minaur threatened to run away with the night match on Rod Laver Arena after winning the opening eight games but was then made to scrap as the powerful Michelsen recovered from a lacklustre start.

Michelsen, 20, surged back and was piling on the pressure to lead 5-4 in the second set tiebreak but De Minaur escaped with an inspired passing shot helping him forge a two-set lead.

The errors returned to the 20-year-old Michelsen's game in the third set as De Minaur calmly moved 5-3 ahead. Just as when he served for the second set, De Minaur wobbled and had to save a break point when serving for the match, but he got the job done to the delight of the home fans.

"This means the world, I love you guys," De Minaur, who has now reached the quarter-finals of the last four Grand Slams, said on court.

"There is nothing I want more than to play well here in Australia. Glad I finally made it to the quarter-finals here but yeah let's go for bigger and better things, come on!"

Michelsen is one a new generation of fearless youngsters in the men's game and had already beaten 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and 19th seed Karen Khachanov en route to the last 16.

But his hopes of joining fellow Americans Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton in the quarter-finals were undermined by a terrible start that gifted De Minaur the opening set.

De Minaur led 6-0 2-0 and had points for a double break in the second set