- Alex de Minaur advances to Wimbledon quarterfinals
- He suffered a scare due to an injury at match point
- De Minaur insisted: “I’ll be fine” after the match
Australian Alex De Minaur reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time by beating rising Frenchman Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 on Monday.
The ninth seed looked in control for two sets against the 20-year-old but Fils, bidding to become the youngest Frenchman in the professional era to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final, responded superbly to extend the contest on Court One.
However, De Minaur, watched by his girlfriend Katie Boulter, the British number one, broke away in the fourth set to cut short the Fils’ comeback.
Much to the concern of the 25-year-old, who will next play either seven-time champion Novak Djokovic or Denmark’s Holger Rune in the quarter-finals, he appeared to be in some discomfort at the end.
Fans were also concerned when they saw the Australian shaking his head towards his box.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll find a way,” he said.
“Thank you guys. The atmosphere was amazing. I’m so proud to be able to play here at Wimbledon in front of you.”
Asked what he liked most about his performance, an exhausted De Minaur joked: “Getting to the finish line. I definitely made it a lot harder than I probably should have.”
Alex de Minaur came through his Wimbledon round of 16 clash, but suffered an injury
He injured his ankle on match point during his win over Arthur Fils at SW19
“I’m happy to have gone through. I did a lot of mental work to stay in shape, even though I couldn’t serve at the end. I couldn’t hold my serve, I just returned the serve. But I’m very happy with that and going into the next one.”
On playing Djokovic or Rune in the quarterfinals: “I’m excited to be in the quarterfinals, have another battle and give myself another chance.”
De Minaur has previously reached two Grand Slam quarter-finals, losing to Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open and Alexander Zverev at this year’s French Open.