Australian Open 2026: Tennis world stunned by de Minaur display as another top star withdraws

Alex de Minaur stunned the tennis world as he produced one of the finest performances of his career on Sunday night to dispatch 10th seed Alexander Bublik in a one-sided demolition job. But the Australian Open was rocked by another shock withdrawal as 13th seed Jakub Mensik pulled out of his fourth-round clash with Novak Djokovic.

Mensik was scheduled to face Djokovic on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals, but announced on Sunday night that he'd been forced to withdraw with an abdominal injury. "This is a tough one to write," Mensik wrote online.

"After long conversations with my team and doctors and after doing everything we could to keep going, I have to unfortunately withdraw from the Australian Open due to an abdominal injury that has progressed over the last matches.

"Even though I'm disappointed, making the 4th round here for the first time is something I will carry with me for a long time. Now it's time to recover properly. I'll be doing my best to be back on court soon!"

It gives Djokovic a straight passage into the last eight at Melbourne Park for the 16th time in his storied career, and a record-extending 65th grand slam quarter-final overall. Mensik became the ninth player to retire or withdraw in the middle of the tournament in what proved to be a first week of carnage in Melbourne.

Two-time champ Naomi Osaka also withdrew from her third-round clash with Maddison Inglis, while Francesca Jones, Marina Stakusic, Felix Auger Aliassime, Hugo Gaston, Raphael Collignon, Michael Zheng and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina all retired hurt in the middle of matches. To put it into context, there's only been an average of four retirements or walkovers per year over the last 10 Australian Opens.

Alex de Minaur's stunning display against 10th seed

Mensik's announcement came in the middle of de Minaur's thrashing of Bublik - one of the finest performances of the Aussie's career. The World No.6 produced a masterclass on Rod Laver Arena to stun Bublik 6-4 6-1 6-1 in an hour and 32 minutes.

It was sweet revenge for de Minaur, who lost to Bublik in the second round of the French Open last year when he led by two sets. It was only de Minaur's third win in 15 career meetings with top-10 opponents at grand slams.

"I was definitely thinking about the last two matches I played him," said de Minaur, after he also lost to Bublik at the Paris Masters last year. "He's super dangerous. He can hit winners off anything basically, take the rhythm out of the match and almost make it as scrappy as possible.

"I just had to be locked in from the first point to the last, so huge mental effort and onto the quarters. So job done."

Tennis fans and commentators were blown away by de Minaur's level, especially considering his recent results against Bublik.

Carlos Alcaraz had earlier overcome 19th seed Tommy Paul, while 25th seed Learner Tien stunned Daniil Medvedev in straight sets. On the women's side, Aryna Sabalenka, Iva Jovic, Coco Gauff and Elena Svitolina marched into the quarters.

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