Alex de Minaur is the best local hope at this year’s Australian Open, but tennis legend Jim Courier believes two things are standing in the way of him pushing to become a grand slam champion.

Alex de Minaur has cruised into the third round of the Australian Open with a comprehensive victory over American qualifier Tristan Boyer on Thursday. The Aussie dropped his opening service game to trail 2-0, but then reeled off the next eight games en route to the dominant 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 victory.

In an interview with 'TNT Sports', Australian legend Todd Woodbridge analyzed Alcaraz's performance against de Minaur: “It was a pretty impressive match, when you listen to them, they’re pretty relaxed. Not too worried about a win or a loss, but when you see what Carlos Alcaraz produced, that was incredible.”

Here we go again. One of the more intriguing narratives and adventures in Australian sport. The honourable if predictable quest of Alex de Minaur to win the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup. It normally ends in a flood of tears inside Rod Laver Arena and yet his scurrying around like a hyper­active cattledog has become extremely watchable in a Rocky Balboa sort of way.

Requiring a straight-sets win over Taylor Fritz to keep his hopes alive, De Minaur came out firing to defeat the American 7-6(3) 6-3, writing “finally” on the camera lens after securing his first top-10 win of the season. De Minaur then appeared ...

Alex de Minaur’s path to Australian Open glory is suddenly that bit easier after his first-round opponent Matteo Berrettini withdrew from the tournament due to an oblique issue.