Todd Woodbridge, Sam Stosur, Mark Philippoussis and Alicia Molik are all impressed with Alex de Minaur’s form at Wimbledon 2024.
London, Great Britain, 10 July 2024 | Leigh Rogers
Many former greats of Australian tennis are at the All England Club this week, watching on with pride as Alex de Minaur enjoys a career-best Wimbledon run.
We asked them to share their thoughts on De Minaur’s performance so far and rate his chances against world No.2 Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.
Todd Woodbridge
“I think he’s got possibly the best chance he’s had in his career to beat one of these big guys in a Slam,” said Woodbridge, a Wimbledon 1997 singles semifinalist.
“He really has played some great tennis. (His fourth round) was really impressive, because Arthur Fils can blow you away if you give him that opportunity, so tactically he played really, really smart. I guess the issue is coming up fit, but by all accounts, he’s fine.”
> READ: De Minaur battles into singles quarterfinals at Wimbledon 2024
The 10-time Wimbledon doubles champion noted that Djokovic’s confidence appeared to be rising, which would make him even tougher to beat.
“Alex is going to have to play the match of his life, but he has beaten him. He’s been in a quarterfinal before. All of the variables of experience are in his favour,” Woodbridge said. “It’s just whether he can turn up and play, as I said, the match of his life.”
An improved serving performance could boost De Minaur’s chances, according to the former world No.1 doubles player.
“The one element of his game that hasn’t been on point is first-serve percentages,” Woodbridge said. “He’s giving too many opportunities for the opponent on second serve. Novak is one of the greatest returners of all time, so he’s going to take advantage of that. That’s probably the key.
“The other part is working out how you’re going to make Novak move. You’ve got to test him all of the time with his movement.”
Sam Stosur
Stosur, who scored six top-10 wins across her illustrious Grand Slam singles career, believes De Minaur can beat Djokovic.
The US Open 2011 singles champion wants to see De Minaur take his chances and play with self-belief.
“I think he’s playing well enough at the moment that there’s going to be opportunities,” said Australia’s Billie Jean King Cup captain.
“It’s just whether he steps up in those moments, fully believes and commits to…
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