Alex de Minaur has broken new ground in his blossoming career, dismantling one of the game’s powerhouses, Daniil Medvedev, to become the first Australian to reach the French Open quarter-finals in two decades.
The slim player from Sydney, with a big heart and electric speed, came back from a set down on Monday to defeat former US Open champion Medvedev 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 and reach just his second quarterfinal in a great tournament. bang.
‘Demon’ becomes the first Australian player to reach the last 16 in France since his idol, mentor and Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt in 2004.
Alex de Minaur has broken new ground in his blossoming career, dismantling one of the game’s powerhouses, Daniil Medvedev, to become the first Australian to reach the French Open quarter-finals in two decades.
De Minaur took a 3-0 lead in the third set.
And a measure of the magnitude of his achievement is that in the last 42 years, only Hewitt twice (2001 and 2004) and Pat Rafter (1997), among Australian men, have come this far.
Those two, of course, were Grand Slam winners and became world numbers ones, and this victory felt like a breakthrough for the indefatigable De Minaur, the world number 11 who had lost all six of his Grand Slam matches. Previous slams. against the five best players.
Medvedev, fifth seed, had eliminated De Minaur at last year’s US Open and had a 6-2 lead over him, but on clay the Russian has never enjoyed it, it was the Australian who employed all the key tactics to set up a date of the round of 16 with the Olympic champion Alexander Zverev or the Danish Holger Rune, seeded number 13.
Too fast, too inventive, too offensive, he overcame a nervous start to gain confidence and reduced the man who has appeared in six Grand Slam finals to frustration as he steadily sliced through Medvedev’s famous defense with a scorching 51 winners.
The sun came out for the first time in this tournament on the Suzanne Lenglen court and the sun boy also appeared, making a surprising turn after Medvedev, who had never made it past the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, had him at a disadvantage. at first.
Medvedev lost four break points in the first game, but capitalized when De Minaur double faulted to take the break that ultimately sealed the first match.
The lean Sydney player with a big heart and electric speed came back from a set down on Monday to defeat former US Open champion Medvedev.
Cleverly varying the pace and height of his groundstrokes, Medvedev gave the Australian no rhythm to work with, and De Minaur’s early work was strangely error-ridden as he committed 19 unforced errors.
More aggressive in the second, De Minaur took the initiative, but the match really seemed to turn after the Russian took a medical timeout mid-set for a foot blister.
When he resumed, De Minaur rocked Medvedev with a searing crosscourt backhand that set up his first break with the Russian offering a grim drop shot to give it away.
It was the prelude to an extraordinary sequence of seven consecutive games for the Australian, as his game flourished in the sun, full of variety, including some clever lobs that for the first time made Medvedev truly fail.
De Minaur took a 3-0 lead in the third set, cheered in the stands by the young man who, he said, had given him life with his passionate shouts during his victory over Jan-Lennard Struff, before conquering the score by 6 -1.
When Medvedev, having lost 11 of the previous 12 games, finally got back on the board at the start of the fourth, breaking De Minaur, it looked like he was less disheartened and able to recover, but the Australian kept up the pressure like an inside thunderer. A forehand earned him the final key break for a 5-3 lead.
