Alex de Minaur lashed back at a tennis fan on social media following his Australian Open exit on Wednesday night.
The Aussie star, who had reached the quarter-finals of his home Grand Slam for the first time in his career, suffered a 6-3 6-2 6-1 defeat by a clinical Jannik Sinner.
A heartbroken De Minaur admitted in his press conference that the stinging defeat had felt like a ‘slap in the face’ after having roared his way through the first four rounds of the tournament.
But after the match, one fan on X delivered a scathing appraisal of De Minaur’s performance against Sinner.
‘Alex De Minaur has zero self belief that he can even compete with Sinner let alone beat him,’ the account known as @pavyg said.
‘Awful performance from him.’
De Minaur, fresh off the back of the match, hit back at the X user with a brutal response.
Alex de Minaur delivered a brutal response to a tennis fan on social media following his Australian Open quarter-finals defeat by Jannik Sinner
The social media user claimed that the 25-year-old tennis star had ‘zero self belief’ and said his performance against Jannik Sinner was ‘awful’ but De Minaur lashed back at the fan on X
De Minaur was bested in straight sets by Sinner, with the Italian securing a spot against Ben Shelton in the semi-finals
‘Hey mate it’s a shame that you never became a good enough player to experience playing Jannik,’ the world No 8 wrote.
‘I’m sure you would’ve put up a better performance and know exactly how to beat him. Wishing you all the best!!!’
Multiple X users replied to De Minaur’s response, writing: ‘Game, set and match, Alex.’
The X user replied to De Minaur’s message writing: ‘Fair play and a good response’ adding a ‘laughing face’ emoji.
It’s not the first time during the tournament that De Minaur has hit out at a social media user, with the Aussie hitting back at a fan who criticised him for how he had been playing during his match against Francisco Cerundolo.
‘De Minaur after hitting high top spin up the middle every point’.
The Australian replied to the post, writing: ‘All love for my number one supporter.’ He also posted a kiss face emoji and a love heart.
It was, though, a tough evening for De Minaur, who has now lost all 10 matches he has played against Sinner.
‘I think he’s probably my worst matchup and you can see it in the head-to-head,’ he said.
Weighing up the positives and negatives from the fortnight, De Minaur admitted it felt like a ‘slap in the face’ to bow out by losing 3-0 on Wednesday, having played such great tennis in the run-up to the quarter-final.
The X user then quoted De Minaur’s comment writing: ‘Fair play and a good response’
The Australian cut a dejected figure in his press conference, stating the defeat felt like a ‘slap in the face’ after his hard work and recent performances
Sinner, who had been ill in the run-up to the match, produced an excellent performance to defeat the world No 8
De Minaur, though, is taking positives away from the tournament and insisted that his ceiling can go beyond a Grand Slam quarter-final
‘I mean, the positives, I think how I handled everything. I mean, the fact that I came in this year top 10, and a lot of expectation, a lot of pressure,’ he said.
‘Obviously, the whole country wanted me to do well. I wanted to do well here.
‘Yeah, I thought I handled it really well to put myself in this position. I would have loved to do more today, but this is what happens sometimes in tennis.
‘Look, the negative is after playing some great tennis on home soil and gaining so much, you feel like you just have been slapped across the face, to be honest, to finish off like that.
‘I guess the other positive is it’s not the first time that I’ve felt that. I felt the same thing when I played Novak a couple of years ago.’
But defiantly, De Minaur admitted that a quarter-final berth was not his ‘ceiling’, insisting he could go on to achieve more.
‘So, hey, I’ll survive. I’ll keep improving. And if anything, I just need to sit with my team and figure out a way to hurt Jannik on the court. That’s ultimately the way we’ve got to look at it and find different ways because at the moment we don’t have it. So back to the drawing board, like I’ve done my whole career.
‘As I said, I still don’t think this is my ceiling. I still think I’ve got more in the tank. So I’ll be searching for that.’
