Since the Australian Open moved to Melbourne Park in 1988, only six Australian men have reached the tournament's singles quarterfinals.
Mark Edmondson remains famously remembered as the last Australian man to win the Australian Open in 1976, with no one in the Melbourne Park era able to secure the title.
With Alex de Minaur's 2025 quarterfinal marking the first Australian men's appearance at that stage in a decade, the question arises: Could this signal the start of a successful Australian Open run to rival Ash Barty's recent dominance on the women's side?
Or will the emergence of new tennis stars like Sinner, Alcaraz and Zverev, following the era of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, mean we'll have to wait another decade for a resurgence in Australian men's tennis?
Here's a look back at the Australian men who have made it to that tough third-to-last round.
6. Alex de Minaur (2025)
Alex de Minaur, currently ranked world No. 8, has faced some tough luck with his Australian Open draws.
The 25-year-old has been knocked out in the round of 16 three times since his debut in 2016, each time by Rublev, Djokovic and Sinner. Tonight, he faces Sinner again, this time for his first-ever quarterfinal appearance.
Although de Minaur's head-to-head record against Sinner is less than promising, with a 9-0 advantage for the Italian, Sinner's recent performance shows signs of vulnerability.
In his last match, Sinner struggled with his breathing, trembling between points and requiring a medical timeout during the third set, only to return and win the next two sets.
Tonight presents de Minaur with a significant opportunity to break the ‘quarterfinal curse', having fallen at that stage at last year's US Open, Wimbledon and the Paris Masters.
