Alex de Minaur has suffered another disappointing defeat after crashing out in the fourth round of the Miami Open, in what many tennis fans described as an epic "choke" against Italy's Matteo Berrettini. The Aussie World No.11 had a number of golden opportunities to send the match into a deciding third set, but came up short on every occasion in the 6-3 7-6 (9-7) defeat.
The 10th seed will be filthy with himself after being unable to convert any of the six set points he held against the former Wimbledon finalist, who fought back superbly to book his spot in the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 event. Less than 24 hours after his superb comeback win against Joao Fonseca, the Aussie started off sluggishly and dropped the opening stanza in Miami.
However, de Minaur looked on track to launch a trademark fightback after leading the Italian 5-4 in the second. He then jumped out to a 0-40 lead on Berrettini's serve but wasn't able to take any of those break point opportunities as the former World No.6 staved off the three set points before eventually holding serve.
The writing looked to be on the wall for the Australian when he was broken the very next game and the big-hitting Berrettini was left to serve for the match. However, the Italian was unable to convert three match points as de Minaur's never-say-die attitude came to the fore and the Aussie forced the second set into a tiebreak.
The momentum seemed to have completely shifted the Demon's way as the World No.11 raced ahead to set up another three set points in the breaker. But once again Berrettini fought back and saved all three after winning seven straight points, before clinching victory on his second match point to leave de Minaur gutted.
The heartbreaking defeat denied de Minaur a tour-best 18th win of the year. While that shows the Aussie is consistently progressing to at least the last-16 in most tournaments, his inability to go deeper at the biggest events has once again been brutally exposed.
De Minaur was shown little mercy from tennis fans on social media, who were left gobsmacked by the Aussie's huge "choke". One user tweeted, "De Minaur might have had the biggest choke I’ve ever seen on this set. Not once, but twice." Another chimed in, "How de Minaur choked that 2nd set needs to be studied man. He had like 5-6 set points 😂" A third fan commented, "Big loss for De Minaur - wasted a lot of set points..gifted them away with UEs mostly. Love his game - but, I don't see him winning anything big."
De Minaur's sad exit ended any hopes of an all-Australian quarter-final with Adam Walton, but the qualifying lucky loser went down to third seed Taylor Fritz 6-3 7-5 later in the day anyway.
Six-time Miami champion Novak Djokovic ousted Berrettini's compatriot Lorenzo Musetti 6-2 6-2 to march to within three wins of a record-extending 41st Masters 1000 crown. The 37-year-old Serbian superstar also edged to within three victories of a milestone 100th tour-level title in a statement showing in front of Serena Williams and Juan Martin del Potro, who watched from Djokovic's courtside box.
"I was starstruck," fourth seed Djokovic said afterwards. "It was amazing to see first 'DelPo', obviously a long-time friend and a rival, so happy to have him around and get his support from the box. It was amazing, the first time to have DelPo in the box, so I want to thank him really for coming. And Serena, that was a surprise. I didn't know. Actually, when I had that down-the-line passing shot, I pointed to her and asked her whether it was okay. She kind of said, 'Yeah, it was fine'. If Serena says it was fine, then it was amazing by everyone else's standards. So yeah, great to have them.
Djokovic next faces American Sebastian Korda, who beat France's Gael Monfils 6-4 2-6 6-4. Elsewhere, Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo upset three-time major finalist Casper Ruud 6-4 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals for the third time in four years. That set up a quarter-final showdown against World No.15 Grigor Dimitrov, who defeated local hope Brandon Nakashima 6-4 7-5.
