Agony and ecstasy: De Minaur ousted as unheralded Aussie shocks Djokovic

Alex de Minaur’s uneven season has come back to haunt him, a surprise early loss at the Paris Masters crushing his hopes of returning to the tour finals.

The world No.9’s 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 second-round defeat to Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry means he won’t be an automatic qualifier for Turin, where the end-of-year finals are played. De Minaur contested the exclusive tournament the past two seasons.

De Minaur’s exit came on the same day fellow Australian Rinky Hijikata enjoyed a career-best victory over tennis legend Novak Djokovic, triumphing 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 to set up a clash with Etcheverry.

Hijikata made it through two qualifying matches to reach the main draw before upsetting Italy’s world No.21 Luciano Darderi for the third time this year to earn his shot at Djokovic. Hijikata joins de Minaur, Nick Kyrgios and Lleyton Hewitt as Australians to have beaten the Serbian legend.

The unheralded Sydneysider revealed afterwards he considered not even taking the court because of a pre-match injury.

“I just cooked my neck a bit yesterday and, to be honest, it wasn’t feeling great last night or this morning,” Hijikata said after toppling Djokovic.

“But I guess a bit of adrenaline kicked in, and I was going to do whatever I could, so I’m glad about my performance.”

Djokovic had already slipped outside the top 10 with a lighter schedule at age 39, but he has also become more vulnerable to these types of defeats that rarely happened in his prime.

The Hijikata loss also rules the 24-time major champion out of playing in Turin. He had wanted to play at this year’s event after skipping it the past two seasons.

It was a day of major upsets in Paris, with world No.1 Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Frances Tiafoe and Learner Tien also losing in the men’s draw.

De Minaur rallied late in the season to reach finals in Beijing and Vienna, which he lost to Djokovic then Carlos Alcaraz, but did not make a grand slam quarter-final this year outside the Australian Open.

The 27-year-old lost in the fourth round at Wimbledon, but went out in the third and second rounds at Roland-Garros and the US Open, respectively.

De Minaur originally – but incorrectly – entered Paris with a one-point edge over Spanish phenom Rafael Jodar.

However, the ATP’s published tally had not removed the Australian’s lowest points tally, which was necessary because only 18 tournaments go towards each player’s total.

The governing body belatedly corrected the discrepancy, leaving de Minaur 49 points adrift and needing to outperform Jodar in Paris to overtake him for the last qualifying spot, but they both lost in the second round.

De Minaur is still the first emergency as it stands, but Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul could go past him if they make deep Paris runs.

The same two players could also knock de Minaur out of the top 10 in the rolling 12-month rankings if they both advance to a certain stage.

The seven-time grand slam quarter-finalist ascended to a career-best No.5 in July, but faces a new challenge to remain in elite territory amid the emergence of several younger players, including Ben Shelton, Jodar, Flavio Cobolli, Arthur Fils and Jakub Mensik.

Cobolli was de Minaur’s Wimbledon conqueror, a defeat that left him particularly devastated as he continues to try and make a major semi-final.

“I think one of us went out to win the match, and the other went out not to lose the match. It’s pretty self-explanatory who was who,” de Minaur said after the Cobolli loss.

“It breaks me inside. That’s the reality of it. Many, many hours get put into my craft, and countless years to have moments like these. To not step up to the plate is truly gut-wrenching.”

De Minaur failed to win a match in his Turin debut two years ago, but he was overjoyed to beat Fritz there last year and advance to the semi-finals, where his nemesis Sinner ended his run.

That Fritz victory was de Minaur’s only one last season over a top-10 opponent, excluding team events, after which he revealed it was the reward he had craved after dealing with “a fair bit of heartbreak recently”.

The Australian star married long-time partner Katie Boulter after his Wimbledon campaign ended.