With his serving once again letting him down badly, Australia's No.1 was still left reflecting on golden opportunities missed as he went down 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 7-6 (7-4) to Felix Auger-Aliassime in a curiously uneven and largely flat quarter-final marathon at Flushing Meadows on Wednesday.
In his fifth major quarter-final, looking for that elusive breakthrough, de Minaur was one set up, held a set point in the second, fought back to parity in the third before succumbing and controlled the fourth, yet still ended up faltering and succumbing fairly tamely on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
With both men seeming fazed by the magnitude of the occasion, it was 25th seed Auger-Aliassime, seeking his first semi-final since his breakthrough at Flushing Meadows in 2021, who held his nerve best, finally coming up big with his booming forehand in the fourth set tiebreaker to seal the win in four hours 10 minutes.Â
But de Minaur, who had bowed out at Wiimbledon to Novak Djokovic bemoaning the poor quality of his serving, will again have to unravel why his first-serve percentage was down at just 42, which is nowhere near good enough at this level.
For all that, he still looked as if he had the solidity to prevail, and as usual there was nothing wrong with his spirit, but again the killer instinct wasn't there as, instead, Auger-Aliassime, ranked No.27 in the world, brought the pain.
"It feels amazing, four years ago, it feels like more. It's been a tough couple of years but it feels great to be back in the semis," said the one-time wonder boy Auger-Aliassime, who will next play either defending champion Jannik Sinner or 10th seed Lorenzo Musetti, who face off in an all-Italian quarter-final later on Ashe.
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