How Alex De Minaur resets for week two of a Slam

NEW YORK — There has been a lot of talk of “reset” at this year’s US Open. Coco Gauff used a bathroom break to reset after a panic attack during her second-round meeting with Donna Vekic, while Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who have endured difficult Grand Slam seasons, both will now take a reset to get their careers back on track.

For Australia’s Alex De Minaur, who on Wednesday takes on Felix Auger-Aliassime as he tries to reach his first ever semifinal at a major, resetting means changing routines. He will shave, change where he might go for dinner, change his shoes, all in an effort to reset his mind and give himself the best possible chance to succeed.

Martina Navratilova and Maria Sharapova used to say that reaching the quarterfinals was when Grand Slam tournaments really began. De Minaur says it’s week two. “Second week of a slam is a completely different dynamic,” De Minaur told ESPN at Flushing Meadows. “It’s the business end of the tournament. The way these tournaments work, you kind of know that it’s a long journey, so it’s good to have a little bit of a mental reset, have those short-term goals and then it’s a whole new tournament. That’s when you know not that far away from playing for the big title.”

Of course, there is even a bit of routine in De Minaur’s change of routines. “I always shave before the tournament and then every time I get into the new week, I shave again,” the No. 8 seed said. “It’s my way of mentally resetting. I’ll have these little things that I’m tweaking. I’ll be changing shoes, I’ll have some different equipment. It just feels like this is now go-time, and this is where I want to be.”

A Grand Slam event in week two is a very different place than it is in week one. After the hustle and bustle of the first few days, when 128 matches are played across the men’s and women’s event, everything thins out in the second week. Locker rooms are emptier. The dynamic changes. It’s something players have to get used to.

“It is quite different in that sense, the whole atmosphere feels a little bit different,” De Minaur said. “There’s a lot less players. There’s not that many singles players left. It’s more the doubles players. The juniors start. It’s a very different place.”

One of the hardest workers on tour, and perhaps the fastest mover on a tennis court, De Minaur has been one of the most consistent players for several years now, always searching for something extra to make the big breakthrough, adding power to his serve and more pop on his forehand. A fixture in the last 16 at Slams, he rebounded from an early loss at the French Open to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon.

At this year’s US Open, he is into the last eight having only dropped one set — the first Australian man to make back-to-back quarterfinals at the US Open since Lleyton Hewitt, who made seven in a row from 2000 to 2006, and won the title in 2001.

It’s been five years since De Minaur reached the last eight at a major for the first time, losing to Dominic Thiem, the eventual champion, at the US Open in 2020. Alexander Zverev stopped him at the French Open last year, he had to withdraw through injury before a planned meeting with Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, and was still well short of full fitness when he went out to Jack Draper at last year’s US Open. In Australia, at the start of 2025 he found Jannik Sinner far too strong.

De Minaur’s match with Auger-Aliassime will be the first time he’s been the favorite, at least on paper, to reach the semis.

That said, the Canadian has been playing outstanding tennis over the past week, knocking out third seed Zverev and following it up with a hard-fought win over Andrey Rublev. De Minaur trails 2-1 in their head-to-heads, too, and knows he’ll need to find a way to stop Auger-Aliassime from cutting loose, appreciating that when he’s on his game, he’s hard to beat.