Alex de Minaur is marching on handsomely in his bid to enter Wimbledon with the biggest grass-court title of his career — and even a new career-high ranking — under his belt.

The Australian No.1, who’s bounced back from his early French Open exit by reaching a final in the Netherlands last week and now powering into the Queen’s Club Championship quarters, says he feels re-energised by his success on the grass courts.

“I’m in a good spot right now, but I still have a lot of hunger and determination. Hopefully by the end of this grass court swing I can touch a new career-high,” the world No.6 declared after defeating an old conqueror from his junior days, Denis Shapovalov, in the second round at Queen’s on Wednesday.

He knows that another big run on the pristine Queen’s courts this week as the No.1 seed could see him end the week for the first time as a member of the world’s top-five players behind Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

The breakthrough to that elite, though, will also depend on how the current No.5 Ben Shelton gets on in the Halle grass-court event where he’s currently in the last-16.

If de Minaur ends up with a better result in London than the American does in Germany, he’ll leapfrog Shelton into fifth.

Either way, de Minaur is in a much happier place than when he cut a morose figure in Paris after capitulating to Jakub Mensik, especially as he scents the prospect of becoming the first Aussie for 20 years to lift the prestigious title at Queen’s since four-time winner Lleyton Hewitt.

Australian Davis Cup captain Hewitt was in de Minaur’s players’ box as the 27-year-old handed out a 6-4 6-1 drubbing to Shapovalov, the swashbuckling left-handed Canadian who’d beaten him a decade earlier in the boys’ final just down the road at Wimbledon.

De Minaur never forgot that loss and hasn’t been beaten by Shapovalov since.

“I’m pretty good at remembering these things,” he smiled.

“We have grown up together and played plenty of matches on the tour, but that one at Wimbledon was a special one. I would have loved to have gotten that win, because it would have given me the world No.1 junior ranking.

“But here we are 10 years later, and I’m still enjoying myself.”

Shapovalov wasn’t, though. Once a top-tenner himself but now at No.41 in the world after some up-and-down years with injury troubles, the Canadian really folded badly after a tight first set, losing concentration, then heart as, increasingly distracted, he served up nine double faults in all.

De Minaur cashed in, taking just 64 minutes to set up a quarter-final date with American world No.32 Brandon Nakashima.

De Minaur admits that six matches in eight days has been taxing, though. “Definitely looking forward to a day off tomorrow,” he said. “The body will definitely love that. I’ll make sure to recover, have a light day I’ll be ready to go, full of energy for Friday.”

Elsewhere, Chris O’Connell battled his way into the quarter-finals of the Nottingham Open pre-Wimbledon event, beating Briton Jay Clarke 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5) to earn a shot at French No.2 seed Benjamin Bonzi in the last-eight.