Local hope Alex de Minaur has suffered a thumping straight-sets Australian Open quarter-final loss to world No.1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner.

A few hours ago Iga Swiatek dropped just three games as she breezed past Emma Navarro to reach the Australian Open semi-finals and continue her bid for a maiden Melbourne title. Five-time major winner Swiatek was ruthless in a 6-1 6-2 victory over eighth seed Navarro.

Alex de Minaur busted through his Australian Open fourth-round ceiling with a brutal display against Alex Michelsen. Now, a date with world No. 1 Jannik Sinner looms.

Lleyton Hewitt and Alex de Minaur had the chance to fanboy a real-life legend at the Australian Open on Tuesday.

Alex de Minaur’s mum was all of us as she watched her son move through to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the first time.

Alex de Minaur is through to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the first time, defeating American giant-killer Alex Michelsen.

This was de Minaur’s fourth consecutive trip to the round-of-16 in Melbourne, including straight-sets defeats from Sinner (2022) and Novak Djokovic (2023) before the heartbreak of losing to Andrey Rublev last year from two-sets-to-one up.

Now we’re talking. Here’s the real Alex de Minaur. Hitting freely. Unencumbered. Whistling while he works. He had the weight of Melbourne Park on his shoulders but now finds himself smack-bang where he desires to be.

Olympic gold medallist John Peers has partnered Olivia Gadecki to clinch the all-Australian final of the Melbourne Park mixed doubles, downing Kimberly Birrell and John-Patrick Smith.

Gadecki and Peers came from a set down to power past their Aussie rivals and held their nerve in the super-tiebreak to claim their first title together. The duo became the first Aussie pair to win a mixed doubles title since Matt Ebden and Jarmila Wolfe (nee Gajdosova) in 2013.

Iga Swiatek is dominating her Australian Open opponents the way no one has at Melbourne Park since Maria Sharapova in 2013.