‘Peeved’: Drama as Alex de Minaur shows class at US Open

Alex de Minaur and Jordan Thompson were both hot under the collar after a dramatic moment in their US Open showdown.

Alex de Minaur is through to the quarter-finals of the US Open for the second time in his career after a rollercoaster victory in his all-Australian showdown with Jordan Thompson on Tuesday (AEST).

De Minaur’s red hot year continued in New York as he moved through to the last eight — the third consecutive grand slam where he has gone beyond the fourth round.

The 25-year-old had already created one moment of Aussie tennis history this week when he became the first Australian male to reach the fourth round of every grand slam in a calendar year since Lleyton Hewitt did so in 2004.

Now he has a chance to get statisticians reaching for the record books again as he heads into his quarter-final against Britain’s Jack Draper on Thursday (AEST).

The victory means de Minaur is just the third Aussie player in the past 50 years to reach multiple US Open men’s singles quarter-finals.

Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt are the only others to have achieved it in this time.

De Minaur was made to work for it on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court and survived some scary moments before eventually prevailing 6-0 3-6 6-3 7-5 after three hours.

Thompson came from nowhere to take the second set 6-3 after he had been blown of the court 6-0 in the first set.

Alex de Minaur celebrates. Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP.

With the battle back on even-footing early in the third set, there was high drama when de Minaur was denied a break point opportunity following a contentious umpire call.

De Minaur had Thompson on the run during a rally at 30-30 with Thompson serving at 2-1 when the 30-year-old’s cap fell off his head.

Thompson was badly out of position and his return presented de Minaur with an opportunity for an overhead smash — but the action was pulled up by the chair umpire because of Thompson’s wardrobe malfunction.

The chair umpire called “hindrance, player let” and the call had both players unhappy.

A perplexed de Minaur approached the chair umpire and asked: “Why didn’t you call it straight away?”

Jordan Thompson's cap came off as he retrieved the ball. Photo: Stan.

Jordan Thompson was also left wondering why it took so long.

The umpire had to explain that she hadn’t seen Thompson’s hat come off because her attention was focused on watching the lob Thompson had hit over the other side of the net.

The umpire eventually announced her verdict to the crowd.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Thompson lost his hat during the rally. We play a let. Replay the point,” she said.

The replay meant Thompson was given another first serve and he went on to hold his serve.

Aussie tennis champ Mark Woodforde said on TV commentary that de Minaur would have felt “a little bit peeved”.

Thompson wasn’t able to carry that luck into the rest of the set and de Minaur struck with the crucial break of serve to go ahead 4-2.

The Wimbledon quarter-finalist was shaky on his serve towards the end of the match and also failed to convert a series of break point opportunities in the fourth set before he eventually secured the decisive break at 5-5 and went on to serve it out.

De Minaur was full of praise for his Davis Cup teammate when speaking during his on-court interview and the pair shared a warm embrace at the net following match point.

Originally published as ‘Peeved’: Drama as Alex de Minaur shows class at US Open