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Philippoussis: How De Minaur can slay Alcaraz
SEN •  January 27th, 2026 9:49 am
Alex De Minaur can finally beat world no.1 Carlos Alcaraz if he plays outside his comfort zone.
That is according to Mark Philippoussis who has urged the sixth-seeded Aussie to take it up to Alcaraz in the Australian Open quarter-finals on Tuesday night.
De Minaur is yet to beat Alcaraz in five attempts so far and will need everything to go right if he is to slay the star Spaniard.
"Alex is playing some great tennis - he's looking strong, moving well, mentally and physically as strong as ever," Philippoussis told AAP.
"But I believe that if he wants to try and get that first win over the boys, like an Alcaraz or a (Jannik) Sinner, he's going to have to play outside of his comfort zone.
"And what I mean by that is he's going to have to just be willing to take on more risk on the important points."
Former world no.8 Philippoussis believes De Minaur’s best shot is to disrupt the bulletproof game of Alcaraz by approaching the net more frequently.
"It is an important part of his game - obviously, it's not a natural part of his game to move forward, but by moving forward, by playing outside of your comfort zone, by stepping up and taking some risks, going forward is one part of it," he added.
"Because he's got great volleys, fantastic volleys, he's got great technique so when he's up there, he's comfortable.Â
"Doing that consistently is one thing, but doing it where you're keeping your opponent off balance is another thing as well.Â
"Giving someone like an Alcaraz rhythm is a very dangerous thing ... so you want to do something where you put him a little bit off balance to keep him guessing."
Philippoussis added: “Alex should definitely be stepping on court believing he can win no matter who he's playing. He has the game to do that."
