- De Minaur advanced to the fourth round after winning by default
- Lucas Pouille left the match due to an abdominal injury
- This is the second time the Australian has made it to the second week.
Alex de Minaur has declared himself a lucky man after his comfortable recline on the couch during the second week of Wimbledon.
The Australian number one cruised into the second week of the grass-court Grand Slam for the second time, needing just two straight-set wins and a walkover to reach the finals.
‘Demon’, who has never before in his 74-match Grand Slam singles career been given the advantage of a walkover victory following Lucas Pouille’s injury withdrawal, believes this is the least stressful stage he has ever had in the finals of a major.
While many rivals, including his fourth-round opponent Arthur Fils, had to endure frustrating delays on another rain-interrupted day, De Minaur had the luxury of a relaxing Saturday once his third-round adversary Pouille withdrew with an abdominal muscle injury.
De Minaur ended by praising the “class” of the former French number one, who informed him an hour and three quarters before they were due to take the court on Saturday morning that he was retiring.
“Yes, I was definitely lucky. Probably the times when you notice it the most are when there are days, like today and even tomorrow, when the weather is not good,” said de Minaur, who reached the fourth round at his fourth consecutive Grand Slam and is now the favourite to make his first quarter-final appearance at SW19.
‘I’m definitely lucky that this happened and I can switch off and look ahead to the next game and work to prepare for that.
‘I went from having to wait probably a very long day, with stops and starts, on the courts, to being able to move forward fairly quickly and prepare for the next one.’
Alex de Minaur (pictured) has received a walkover in his third round match at Wimbledon
The Australian will advance to the fourth round at the All England Club for the second time.
De Minaur said he found out about it at around 9.15am when he was in the middle of his warm-up before going out on the pitch, after Pouille himself, 30, approached him to let him know he was not fit to play.
“I think it was a great move on their part to let me know early in the day, especially since the weather forecast indicated it could be delayed for a long time,” de Minaur said.
“I wish him a speedy recovery. As for me, I’m probably a little bit relieved. Just because everyone knew what kind of day was coming, that it was going to be a long one and I was able to finish pretty quickly.”
De Minaur’s next opponent will be Fils, the exciting 20-year-old Frenchman and world number 34, who had to battle for three and a quarter hours against Russian number 44 Roman Safiullin in their rain-interrupted match before prevailing 4-6 6-3 1-6 6-4 6-3.
De Minaur’s opponent in the fourth round of the tournament is world number 34 Arthur Fils.
Reaching the fourth round is becoming a regular occurrence for De Minaur. One sign that the Australian is starting to feel like he is part of the elite is that he has now reached the second week in seven of the last 11 Grand Slam tournaments, having achieved the feat only twice in his first 17.
So far, everything has seemed to be going well. De Minaur enjoyed two straight-set wins against fellow Australian James Duckworth and Spaniard Jaume Maunar in his first two matches.
“Reaching the second week is a great start and I hope to continue fighting for more,” said De Minaur.
“It’s always great to get to the second week. The first week is all about doing everything you can to stay alive, right? And then once you get through that first week, it feels like a whole new tournament, the second week.”
“As I’ve said for a long time, this is where I wanted to be.”