[Source: Reuters]

lex 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.

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 before Michelsen came to life.

He was almost made to pay for failing to keep his opponent under wraps when he served a double fault to allow Michelsen to break back for 5-5 in the second set.

Michelsen looked increasingly dangerous but will rue missing an easy volley when 2-1 ahead in the tiebreak and then failing to win a rally he dominated at 5-4 when De Minaur hooked a forehand winner across him at the net.

De Minaur served an ace to reach set point and a Michelsen error then gave him a two-set lead.