Alex de Minaur is one of the best tennis players in the world and deserves the respect of the Australian public

Alex de Minaur will probably be our last singles hope, again, at this year’s Australian Open. He is as reliable as your grandma’s Toyota Corolla.

It’s the same story as at eight of the past nine majors, during which world No.6 de Minaur reached the quarter-finals five times and the round of 16 in three others.

De Minaur and qualifier Maddison Inglis are the only locals to advance to the third round at Melbourne Park this year. At the time of writing, James Duckworth must upset two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner to join them.

Our media’s optimistic tennis reporting across the years has become the butt of international jokes.

The Tennis Podcast has a segment during this Australian Open where the three hosts poke fun at our penchant for labelling overachieving local underdogs as “sensations”, while retired American John Isner described Australia’s media on the Nothing Major podcast as “super annoying” for how we “pump up” our players.

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“Alexei Popyrin, can he make the run count in Australia this year?” Isner said in a mocking tone.

Duckworth, Alex Bolt and Sam Groth copped a light-hearted drive-by in the same segment before fellow ex-American player Sam Querrey, to ram home Isner’s point, imitated in a dramatic, broadcast tone: “Is this the year Hijikata makes the second week?”

Unfortunately, it is not. Hijikata lost in the second round on Thursday, continuing a torrid two days when eight of the 11 remaining Australians exited the tournament.