Alex De Minaur roared on by his superfan to beat Daniil Medvedev at French Open
De Minaur had launched an appeal on social media to find the boy who had cheered every point he won in his third-round win over Jan-Lennard Struff.
Alex De Minaur was roared on by his young superfan as he upset Daniil Medvedev to reach his first French Open quarter-final.
The Australian had launched an appeal on social media to find the boy who had cheered every point he won throughout his rain-interrupted third-round win over Jan-Lennard Struff.
And the boy was given a front row seat on Court Suzanne Lenglen to watch his hero reach the last eight after a 4-6 6-2 6-1 6-3 victory.
“He’s managed a miracle. I might have to get him on tour week in, week out,” said the 11th seed.
“No, we found him obviously through the beautiful world of social media, we ended up finding him. We got him to the match. He came with his whole crew, with his mates and his coach. It was great to see him out there.
“Again, even on that big court, I could hear him after every single point. It’s a distinctive voice, so it’s great to see.
“He’ll be around. I think he’ll be chilling with me tomorrow in my practice day and of course he’ll be there for the very next match.”
It was a tough afternoon for Russian fifth seed Medvedev, who took the first set handily but needed lengthy treatment on a horrible-looking blister on his foot in the second.
Medvedev refused to blame the issue for his defeat, though.
“No, Alex played better. To be honest, I’m disappointed to lose, but I don’t have anything to tell myself in a tough way like I was not, I don’t know, good attitude today or I was not fighting till the end.
“I did all of this. He played better. My best was not enough today, so looking forward to next ones.”
The night session provided another late finish as fourth seed Alexander Zverev edged out Danish youngster Holger Rune in five sets.
Their match did not start until 9.30pm after Novak Djokovic’s four-hour 39 minute-win over Francisco Cerondolo.
It was not quite a repeat of Djokovic’s 3.07am finish in the early hours of Sunday morning.
But Zverev wrapped up a 4-6 6-1 5-7 7-6 (2) 6-2 victory at 1.40am to book a last-eight meeting with De Minaur.
