Alex de Minaur’s secret talent blows tennis away in interview with ‘lucky charm’
Alex de Minaur has melted hearts across the tennis world, showing off a secret talent after he made history at the French Open.
Tennis
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Alex de Minaur is a man of many talents.
The man known as ‘Demon’ defeated Russian fifth seed Daniil Medvedev in four sets – 4-6 6-2 6-1 6-3 – to progress to just his second grand slam quarter-final.
The 25-year-old will face Alexander Zverev in the final eight after recording his fifth win against a top 10 opponent this year.
De Minaur had never made it past the second round at Roland Garros before this year, winning just three of 10 matches.
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But he has improved on clay this season, also reaching a first Masters quarter-final on the surface in Monte Carlo. It was his first win against a top five player on clay.
In the third round, De Minaur was famously cheered to victory against Jan-Lennard Struff by a young superfan.
And the boy was back again, this time sitting right behind De Minaur’s player box.
“We found him obviously through the beautiful world of social media, we ended up finding him. We got him to the match,” said De Minaur.
“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.”
Watch Alex de Minaur speak French in the video above
There were wholesome scenes after the victory when De Minaur was reunited post-match with his superfan, a French boy named Paul.
Speaking in French, he grabbed the boy’s shoulder and said: “This is my best fan here, Paul.
“I want to say thank you. After the tournament, the next round you have to be with me too.”
Paul replied: “Yes. Every day, All the time, I’m going to try come out until you win.
“We hope you win. Honestly it was awesome, I hope you are going to win. It’s incredible, thank you.”
The pair high-fived and De Minaur earnestly said: “I listened to you on every point. Thank you.”
Tennis commentator Bastien Fachan shared the footage on social media and said: “Alex de Minaur and his little French fan/lucky charm Paul are the most wholesome story of this year’s Roland-Garros.”
One fan wrote: “It’s impossible to hate on De Minaur. His tennis is amazing, his attitude is amazing, and he even spoke French.”
A second said: “The biggest shock of the Medvedev versus De Minaur match for me was finding out that Alex could speak French.”
Another posted: “Alex de Minaur so bloody impressive - not only towels up Medvedev - but jumps on in pure French to address the crowd. I can’t understand him but that is very respectful and shows there’s many more strings to the racquet.”
De Minaur spent the first five years of his life in Sydney, relocated with his family to Alicante, Spain before returning to Australia at age 13.
He is fluent in English, Spanish and clearly speaks some handy French too.
The Demon and Paul reunited behind the scenes at Roland Garros — and the world No. 11 signed his cap and gave it to the youngster, before asking him to accompany him at practice on his day off before the quarter-final against Zverev.
With his good luck charm in attendance, De Minaur will look to go as deep as he’s ever been in a slam, after losing in straight sets to eventual winner Dominic Thiem in the 2020 US Open quarter-finals.
“He’s managed a miracle,” he said of his fan. “Might have to get him on tour week in, week out.”
“Even on that big court, I could hear him after every single point. It’s a distinctive voice, so it’s great to see,”
“I’m pretty happy, not gonna lie,” De Minaur said.
“It was a great match today. Fought till the end. Managed to beat a quality opponent in a grand slam fourth round, which is kind of the goal that I had been setting for myself to go deeper at these events.
“Mentally I was very calm. I knew that there was a good chance that we could even go into a fifth set, so, you know, I was ready for anything today.”
After shaking hands with Medvedev, De Minaur walked into the middle of the court, opened his arms and shouted: “I love it here! I absolutely love it here!”
“It’s pretty extraordinary, if you ask me. I always thought that for me to play well on the clay I needed hot, lively conditions,” he said.
“But this whole tournament has proven otherwise, right? It’s been a complete shock to the system, to everything I ever believed in.”
His girlfriend Katie Boulter commented on Instagram: “I’m just not sure we’re compatible anymore. He’s a clay dog now.”
Nick Kyrgios said: “What an effort.”
Originally published as Alex de Minaur’s secret talent blows tennis away in interview with ‘lucky charm’
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