Alex de Minaur gave insight into the depths of his injury struggles after making the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the first time.
It's been some time since Australia had the chance to cheer on a local hope at the business end of the tournament, with Nick Kyrgios being the last to reach the final eight in 2015.
De Minaur defeated unseeded Alex Michelsen of the US 6-0, 7-6 (5), 6-3 to book a date with world No.1 Jannik Sinner, who struggled through his four set victory over 13th seed Holger Rune.
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Tennis pundits believe this could be the Australian's huge chance to upset the Italian, having fallen to him once before in the fourth round in Melbourne.
Alex de Minaur of Australia. Getty
De Minaur lost to Sinner in 2022, Novak Djokovic in 2023 and Andrey Rublev last year in the round of 16 in his last three Australian Open campaigns.
At the beginning of 2024, De Minaur became the first Aussie to enter the world's top 10 since Lleyton Hewitt in 2006 but only held the position for two weeks after going down to Rublev in the fourth round.
However, in the background, the Australian was heavily bothered by a rare hip complaint that kept him below his best.
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Yet he still managed to make the final eight at three grand slams in 2024 and maintained that standard to begin the new year.
The Aussie public had not been completely privy to how much The Demon struggled last year in the face of ongoing pain.
Asked about his recovery from the hip problem, de Minaur admitted on Monday night: "It was brutal, both physically and mentally.
"At some point I would love to, you know, open up fully about everything that I went through in that period, because it was a lot, but ultimately the people in my team, in my surroundings, they know how tough it was.
"But to give you a little bit of an insight, it was just brutal from not knowing what my injury was, what my problem was, to not knowing the timeline to coming back to competing with so much pain and inhibiting my movement for so long, to mentally having to push myself every time I stepped out on court, knowing that my biggest asset, which is my movement, is not there.
"So no matter what, if I'm gonna win that match on that day, I was going to have to be so strong mentally, knowing that, you know, I had my limitations and I still had to compete from the very first point till the last.
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"Yeah, just waiting, more than anything, waiting days and weeks for there to be no pain on my movement. It was a bloody long process, but I'm glad we're here right now, yeah, and we've passed the page hopefully."
De Minaur faces a huge test against Sinner, who occasionally tried to cool off by pressing a cold towel to his face or pouring water down the back of his neck during his win over Rune.
Sinner has won 18 consecutive tour-level matches, dating back to late 2024. Last season, Sinner went 73-6 with eight titles, the first man with that many tournament championships in a single year since Andy Murray in 2016.
De Minaur said his team will take a look at the tape of his recent clashes with Italian.
"You've got to play the match on face value and forget about everything that's happened in the past," he said.
"The only thing that I want to take from the past is the matches that I felt like I played well, and I found different areas where I could expose them.
"We will come up with a set game plan. Obviously, a lot depends on when we play, whether it's day or night.
"That's two completely different matches and two different ways of playing him. I'll get ready for a battle from the very first point until the last."
