How Alex De Minaur resets for week two of a Slam - ESPN

NEW YORK — There has been a lot of talk of «reset» at this year's US Open. Coco Gauff used a bathroom break to reset after a panic attack during her second-round meeting with Donna Vekic, while Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who have endured difficult Grand Slam seasons, both will now take a reset to get their careers back on track.

For Australia's Alex De Minaur, who on Wednesday takes on Felix Auger-Aliassime as he tries to reach his first ever semifinal at a major, resetting means changing routines. He will shave, change where he might go for dinner, change his shoes, all in an effort to reset his mind and give himself the best possible chance to succeed.

Martina Navratilova and Maria Sharapova used to say that reaching the quarterfinals was when Grand Slam tournaments really began. De Minaur says it's week two. «Second week of a slam is a completely different dynamic,» De Minaur told ESPN at Flushing Meadows. «It's the business end of the tournament. The way these tournaments work, you kind of know that it's a long journey, so it's good to have a little bit of a mental reset, have those short-term goals and then it's a whole new tournament. That's when you know not that far away from playing for the big title.»

Of course, there is even a bit of routine in De Minaur's change of routines. «I always shave before the tournament and then every time I get into the new week, I shave again,» the No. 8 seed said. «It's my way of mentally resetting. I'll have these little things that I'm tweaking. I'll be changing shoes, I'll have some different equipment. It just feels like this is now go-time, and this is where I want to be.»

A Grand Slam event in week two is a very different place than it is in week one. After the