Alex de Minaur has achieved a significant milestone, joining Lleyton Hewitt and three other Australian tennis players in reaching at least 50 career Masters 1000 victories. This accomplishment follows his decisive straight-sets victory over Hubert Hurkacz at Indian Wells. The Australian, ranked number ten in the world, advanced to the fourth round of the California hard-court tournament with a commanding 6-4, 6-0 win over the twenty-first-seeded Polish player in just 74 minutes.1
Despite never having reached the quarter-finals at Indian Wells, de Minaur is optimistic about breaking that streak, given his consistent performance throughout the year. The twenty-six-year-old had reached the quarter-finals in every tournament he entered since June of the previous year, until his streak was interrupted by a round of thirty-two defeat in Dubai last month.
Now, de Minaur has a favorable opportunity to reach his first Indian Wells quarter-final, facing Argentinian twenty-fifth seed Francisco Cerundolo in the round of sixteen.2 Although Hurkacz defeated de Minaur in their previous encounter in 2019 on the clay courts of Madrid, de Minaur exacted his revenge in a dominant fashion this time.
De Minaur secured his first break of serve in the seventh game of the opening set and then clinched the set with his only set point.3 From that point onward, de Minaur elevated his game, while Hurkacz struggled to keep pace. “The Demon” broke Hurkacz’s serve in the first, third, and fifth games of the second set, completing a decisive victory and handing Hurkacz a second-set bagel.4
This victory marked de Minaur’s fiftieth career win in Masters 1000 events, placing him alongside Hewitt (128), Pat Rafter (75), Mark Philippoussis (71), and Nick Kyrgios (52) as the only Australians to achieve this feat. While de Minaur is likely to surpass Kyrgios, whose career is currently uncertain due to injury, catching Hewitt’s record will be a more challenging task.
De Minaur is the sole remaining Australian competitor at Indian Wells, following the early exits of Kyrgios, Jordan Thompson, Chris O’Connell, Alexei Popyrin, Alexandar Vukic, Rinky Hijikata, Li Tu, and Adam Walton. His next opponent, Cerundolo, advanced to the round of sixteen with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Botic Van De Zandschulp, who had previously defeated Novak Djokovic.
De Minaur boasts a 15-1 record against players outside the top twenty this year, and he will be confident of extending that record against Cerundolo and securing his first Indian Wells quarter-final appearance.5 He has been in excellent form in 2025, reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and the final of the Rotterdam Open.6
In other men’s matches, Jack Draper of Britain overcame a slow start to defeat Jenson Brooksby 7-5, 6-4, securing his place in the round of sixteen for the second time in his career.7 He will face former champion Taylor Fritz, who recovered from a first-set loss to defeat Alejandro Tabilo 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. American Brandon Nakashima also advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Italian Matteo Arnaldi, and fellow American Ben Shelton rallied from a 3-5 deficit in the second set to defeat Russia’s Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-5.
