Alex de Minaur lashed out at a tennis fan on social media following his exit from the Australian Open on Wednesday night.
The Australian star, who had reached the quarter-finals of his country's Grand Slam for the first time in his career, suffered a 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 loss to a clinical Jannik Sinner.
De Minaur, heartbroken, admitted in his press conference that the painful defeat had seemed like a “slap in the face” after having overcome the first four rounds of the tournament.
But after the match, one X fan gave a scathing assessment of De Minaur's performance against Sinner.
“Alex De Minaur has no confidence that he can compete with Sinner, much less beat him,” said the account known as @pavyg.
“Horrible performance on his part.”
De Minaur, fresh from the match, hit back at user X with a brutal response.
Alex de Minaur gave a brutal response to a tennis fan on social media after his Australian Open quarterfinal loss to Jannik Sinner.
The social media user claimed the 25-year-old tennis star had “no self-confidence” and said his performance against Jannik Sinner was “horrible”, but De Miñaur attacked the fan on X.
De Minaur was beaten in straight sets by Sinner, and the Italian secured a spot against Ben Shelton in the semi-finals.
“Hey buddy, it's a shame you never became a good enough player to experience the role of Jannik,” the world number 8 wrote.
'I'm sure you would have had a better performance and would have known exactly how to beat him. I wish you all the best!!!'
Several X users responded to De Minaur's response, writing: “Game, set and match, Alex.”
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It is not the first time during the tournament that De Minaur attacks a social media user, as the Australian hit back at a fan who criticized him for how he had played during his match against Francisco Cerundolo.
“De Minaur, after performing a high turn in the middle at each point.”
The Australian responded to the post writing: “All the love to my number one fan.” She also posted a kiss face emoji and a love heart.
However, it was a difficult night for De Minaur, who has already lost all 10 matches he played against Sinner.
“I think it's probably my worst matchup and you can see it in the head-to-head,” he said.
Weighing up the positives and negatives of the fortnight, De Minaur admitted it was like a “slap” to lose 3-0 on Wednesday, having played such good tennis in the run-up to the quarter-finals.
The X user then quoted De Minaur's comment: “Fair play and good response.”
The Australian appeared dejected in his press conference, stating that the defeat felt like a “slap in the face” after his hard work and recent performances.
Sinner, who had been ill before the match, put in an excellent performance to defeat the world number 8.
De Minaur, however, takes positive aspects from the tournament and insisted that his ceiling can go beyond the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam.
'I mean, the positive, I think how I handled everything. “I mean, the fact that this year I made it to the top 10, and there was a lot of expectations, a lot of pressure,” he said.
'Obviously, the whole country wanted me to do well. I wanted to do well here.
'Yes, I thought I handled it very well to put myself in this position. I would have loved to do more today, but this is what happens sometimes in tennis.
“Look, the negative thing is that after playing great tennis at home and winning so much, you feel like you've been slapped, to be honest, for finishing like that.
'I guess the other positive is that it's not the first time I've felt that. “I felt the same when I played against Novak a couple of years ago.”
But defiantly, De Minaur admitted a quarter-final place was not his “ceiling”, insisting he could achieve more.
'So, hey, I'll survive. I will continue to improve. And if anything, I just need to sit down with my team and find a way to hurt Jannik on the court. Ultimately, that's the way we have to look at it and find different ways because right now we don't have it. So let's go back to the drawing board, as I have done my entire career.
'Like I said, I still don't think this is my ceiling. I still think I have more in the tank. So I'll be looking for that.'