Alex de Minaur knows he will need to be at the top of his game to beat Jannik Sinner, but is determined to "go for bigger and better things" at the Australian Open.
Home hope De Minaur booked his place in the last eight at Melbourne Park for the first time in his career with a 6-0 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 win over Alex Michelsen.
De Minaur is the first Australian to reach a men's singles quarter-final at the Australian Open since Nick Kyrgios in 2015.
He has won his first six ATP-level matches of the season for the first time in his career. The 25-year-old's previous best was winning his opening five in 2021.
"It means the world," De Minaur said in his on-court interview.
"There's nothing I want to do more than play well here in Australia. I'm glad I've finally made it to the quarter-finals here, but let's go for bigger and better things.
"My whole career has been day by day, it hasn't been a success overnight. I've had to keep improving, every year, little increments and percentages, getting a little bit stronger.
"I think it's a combination of that and confidence. The consistency always pays off at the end."
1 - Alex de Minaur is the first Australian to reach the Men’s Singles quarter-final at the Australian Open since Nick Kyrgios in 2015. Star. #AO2025 | @AustralianOpen @atptour pic.twitter.com/TxMALMcJNH
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) January 20, 2025
Next up for the eighth seed is reigning champion Sinner.
De Minaur has lost all nine of his previous meetings with the world number one.
"I'm looking forward to it, it's going to be an incredibly tough match," De Minaur said of facing Sinner.
"I'm going to have to do something that I haven't done before, but why not start here?"
De Minaur is the fifth Australian man in the Open Era to reach four straight grand slam quarter-finals.