Alex de Minaur has kept Team Australia’s hopes of a quarter-final berth at the United Cup alive with a clinical win in his men’s singles leg of his side’s Group F tie with Great Britain.

Team Australia required a 3-0 win in their tie with Great Britain to top the group and directly qualify for the quarter-finals in Sydney.

But after Katie Boulter took a straight sets win in the women’s singles match, de Minaur needed a straight-sets victory of his own, with minimal games lost, to keep the host nation in the hunt for the best-placed runner-up spot.

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Needing a swift victory, de Minaur cruised past world No.125 Billy Harris with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph.

“Alex de Minaur is just oozing class,” commentator Mark Petchey said in commentary on Nine.

“This performance has been sensational.”

The opening set played out on serve until de Minaur finally broke through the deuce in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead.

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De Minaur, ranked world No.9, soon took a double break and served out the first set as he settled into his groove.

Picking up where he left off in the second set, de Minaur broke Harris’ serve straight away before consolidating.

The third game featured a thrilling 10-shot rally in which both players covered the court.

“You can’t do that, can you? You bet he can,” Todd Woodbridge exclaimed in commentary.

Petchey added: “70 per cent [of the Earth is covered by water] and the rest of it by this man.”

Speaking post-match, de Minaur shrugged off the hip injury that derailed his 2024 season from Wimbledon.

De Minaur suffered the injury late in his fourth-round win over Arthur Fils at the All England Club, forcing him to retire from his quarter-final against Novak Djokovic.

Still under an injury cloud ahead of the Australian summer, de Minaur declared that he was back moving freely.

“I’ve got my legs back everybody,” he said.

“I’m back.”

With the victory, de Minaur levelled the tie 1-1 and set up a do-or-die mixed doubles leg.