WATCH: Elite act we all missed in Alcaraz-Demon clash

By their own admission, tennis players can be selfish and self-centred people.

It's a trait you would see in so many professional sports men and women.

Carlos Alcaraz may be among the small minority of stars you can't class in such a group.

During his quarter-final show down against Australia's Alex de Minaur, the Spanish world No 1 showed just why he's so highly regarded on tour and mong fans.

With Demon serving at 5-6 down in the first set, the chair umpire issued a time violation against him.

Boos rang out around Rod Laver Arena - and fair enough too. Demon was clearly starting his service as the shot clock ran down.

A bemused De Minaur looked stunned while his opponent spoke up immediately.

"I wasn't ready," Alcaraz told the official. "I wasn't there (pointing to the line). How do you call it? I wasn't ready."

Cue huge applause from the crowd as they recognised what was happening.

Unfortunately it made no real impact for Demon who went on to drop serve and lose the opening set before bowing out of the Open in three.

It means Australia will have to wait at least 51 years before they see one of their own lift the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup aloft.

The defeat marks Demon's seventh in a Grand Slam quarter-final and extends his head-to-head record against Alcaraz to 0-6.

It was quite the performance by the Spaniard, who from the outset controlled the match despite some unforced errors to start.

He would break the serve of the New South Welshman on the first time of trying, which saw him lead 3-love.

And while de Minaur would reel off three games of his own in response, Alcaraz then broke twice later in the set to win 7-5.

From there, the 22-year-old continued to leave his mark on the match, having forced de Minaur into multiple errors (48 for the match), seeing him cruise to victory.

The Spaniard's serve also posed problems for the Demon with Alcaraz winning 77% of his first serve points in comparison to the Aussie's 59%.

This would be a sentiment shared by SEN Tennis' Mark Woodforde, who believes that Alcaraz should be pleased with the way he played against a formidable opponent.

"He's got to be extremely satisfied that his game stood up against a test with Alex de Minaur tonight," Woodforde said on commentary.

"A big arm wrestle took place in that first set, and he (de Minaur) just came off second best."

It now sets up a massive semi-final between Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev for a spot in the 2026 Australian Open men's singles Final.

That match will be played on Friday at Rod Laver Arena, with the clash expected to see many tune in.

And you can too with SEN.

SEN's live coverage of the men's semi final's on Friday begins from 2pm AEDT through the SEN app before going on to its radio network from 6pm.

For Wednesday and Thursday, SEN's commentary begins from 7pm on both the SEN app and radio network.