Alex De Minaur vowed to “find a way” to compete in the Wimbledon quarter-finals after he seemed to suffer an injury during match point against Arthur Fils.
The ninth seed continued his fine run at the Championships with a 6-2 6-4 4-6 6-3 win over 20-year-old Frenchman Fils on Court One to seal a maiden last-eight berth in SW19.
However, De Minaur barely celebrated the fine volley which closed out the tie on his second match point and hobbled over to acknowledge Fils before he addressed his box with a shake of the head.
Asked during his on-court interview if he was OK, De Minaur insisted: “I’ll be all right. I’ll find a way.
“No, thank you guys. Atmosphere was unbelievable, super proud of myself to be in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon, playing in front of you guys, so thank you.”
The Australian had raced into a two-set lead in front of girlfriend and British number one Katie Boulter before he was broken twice by a pumped up Fils to force a fourth set.
A break at the start of the fourth put De Minaur in control, but he failed to close out the match on serve when 5-2 up.
When De Minaur did finish the fourth-round clash with a volley at the net after a long rally, the 25-year-old stood almost motionless with a concerned look on his face as the crowd applauded, but kept his cards close to his chest when it came to his fitness.
“Great job mentally to stay with it, even though I couldn’t serve at the end, couldn’t hold my serve. I just backed my return so very happy with that,” De Minaur added.
“I am just excited to be in the quarter-finals, to have another battle, give myself a shot. Yeah, one thing you can definitely count on is me going out there trying my hardest and playing my heart out.”
Lorenzo Musetti was the first male player to book his place in the quarter-finals on Monday after a four-set success over lucky-loser Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
Mpetshi Perricard had been one of the stories of the Championships, but had little answer once Musetti zoned in as the 25th seed recorded a 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-2 triumph clinched by 1.06pm after only two hours and three minutes on Court Two.
It sent Musetti through to a maiden grand slam quarter-final and made it three Italians overall in the last eight at Wimbledon with Jannik Sinner and women’s seventh seed Jasmine Paolini progressing on Sunday.
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