The 24-year-old will become the first Australian man to be ranked in that territory since Lleyton Hewitt in July 2006,and just the fourth since 1990,behind Hewitt,Pat Rafter and Mark Philippoussis.
Only an exclusive group of 10 have even been inside the top 20 in that time:Hewitt,Rafter,Philippoussis,de Minaur,Nick Kyrgios,Masur,Bernard Tomic,Jason Stoltenberg,Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.
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Masur argues only grand slam champions Hewitt,Rafter and Pat Cash and grand slam finalists Philippoussis and Kyrgios can lay claim to having a better career among Australian men in the past 40 years than de Minaur to this point.
“It’s quite a feat,making the top 10,and the next step is winning a slam,” Masur said.
“Lleyton won slams,spent two years at No.1,then there’s his Davis Cup record;Rafter and Cash also won slams;and Philippoussis made slam finals and won two Davis Cups,which is significant over five sets. Winning a slam is the true test.
“But ‘Demon’ is already better than all us[others who made the top 20],and that’s while measuring him against names who are retired with a 15-year body of work,whereas he’s only 24. The wins you have to have to go from[being ranked] 15 to 10[are major] … having nine wins over top-10 players is incredibly significant in[the past] year.”