De Minaur makes maiden Wimbledon quarter-final, erasing 2022 memory

Australian Alex de Minaur, the No 9 seed, won against Frenchman Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of Wimbledon at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London on Monday.

He lost his first set of the tournament after his wins against lucky loser James Duckworth (7-6 (1), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4)), Spaniard Jaume Munar (6-2, 6-2, 7-5) and French qualifier Lucas Pouille (W/O) in the previous rounds of The Championships.

“I’m feeling great, super excited,” De Minaur said after the match. “This has always been a tournament I’ve wanted to do well in. I’m very happy to be in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.”

De Minaur had previously reached the fourth round back in 2022 and will play his first quarter-final on the English grass. He had surprisingly lost againt Cristian Garin leading two sets to zero in 2022.

“I’ve taken a lot of the tough moments that I’ve gone through in my career, there’s only one way to look at it, and that’s learn from it. Us humans, we tend to be the only living thing that makes the same mistake twice. I’m glad I didn’t make that same mistake today.”

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A pain in a hip zone but just “a little bit of scare”

De Minaur seemed very concerned on the match point, like if he had been injured on the last point. “I just slid out to a forehand on my first match point” he later admitted. “Felt like I jarred it a little bit. It’s probably a little bit of a scare more than anything.”

“I’m feeling pretty decent. My body went through a pretty physical match out there. It feels a little bit ginger everywhere, I’m not going to lie. I’ve done my recovery. I’m sure I’ll be feeling great tomorrow.” The pain was in “the hip area”, De Minaur added.

Before that De Minaur had trouble finishing off the talented 20-year-old from France. “At the end of the day the crowd wants a spectacle, right? They want the match to go for as long as possible. You understand them getting involved, wanting Arthur to kind of have the comeback and all this.

“It definitely wasn’t easy. It definitely wasn’t straightforward. There was a lot going through my mind. Happy I was able to finish it off in the end.”

Ranked No 9, the Aussie will face the winner of the match between Dane Holger Rune, the No 15 seed, and Serb Novak Djokovic, the second seed, next – in what will be his maiden quarter-final in SW19.

Fils, ranked No 34, reached his first fourth round of a Slam at Wimbledon. He defeated Swiss Dominic Stricker (6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4), Pole Hubert Hurkacz, the No 7 seed (7-6 (2), 6-4, 2-6, 6-6 (8) ret.) and Russian Roman Safiullin (4-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3).

London (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 50.000.000, most recent results first):

• Holger Rune vs. Novak Djokovic
• Taylor Fritz vs. Alexander Zverev: monday
• Lorenzo Musetti (25) beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (LL): 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2
• Tommy Paul (12) beat Roberto Bautista Agut: 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Daniil Medvedev (5) beat Grigor Dimitrov (10): 5-3 ret.
• Jannik Sinner (1) beat Ben Shelton (14): 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (9)
• Carlos Alcaraz (3) beat Ugo Humbert (16): 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5