Soaring Alex de Minaur has been gifted a major boost in his bid to challenge for the Australian Open crown by sealing a priceless top-eight seeding at his home slam.
The pre-Melbourne present came in the shape of his old foe Andrey Rublev, who knocked de Minaur out of last year's event in the fourth round, surprisingly losing his first match of the year 7500km away at the Hong Kong Open to Hungarian Fabian Marozsan.
The shock 7-5 3-6 6-3 loss for top seed and defending champ Rublev means world No.9 de Minaur will leapfrog the Russian next week into eighth place in the ATP rankings on which the Australian Open seedings will be based.
That will give the Sydneysider protection from having to face any other player in the top-eight at Melbourne Park until the quarter-finals - a last-eight spot that he has never yet managed to reach in seven attempts.
Of course, there are no free rides in grand slam combat - and de Minaur could still encounter huge dangers in the last-16 from the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Grigor Dimitrov, Tommy Paul or even his 2024 conqueror Rublev himself.
Even in the third round, perils potentially abound with the likes of old Davis Cup conqueror Felix Auger-Aliassime and monster-serving French newbie Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard among those ready to ambush him.
Yet knowing he can't meet any player ranked above him until the last-eight has to be considered a real boon for the 25-year-old, who has been knocked out in the last-16 at the last three editions.
Now he's really on pole to become the first Australian man since Nick Kyrgios a decade ago to reach the last-eight.
After reaching the quarters in the other three grand slams last year, de Minaur, now free of the hip trouble that bedevilled him post-Wimbledon in 2024, has also looked so sharp in the United Cup that he was left declaring bullishly earlier this week: "I'm back!" Â
Mats Wilander, the three-time Australian Open champion, is among those luminaries who are still convinced his home slam represents de Minaur's best chance of prevailing in any of the majors.
And de Minaur won't be the only Australian man to be given seeding protection, with Canadian Open winner Alexei Popyrin currently ranked No.24 and Jordan Thompson No.27.Â
It will be the first time since 1982 that three home-based men will be seeded in the singles.
