Alex de Minaur’s mother, Esther, was shedding tears of joy after the tennis star reached the quarterfinal of the Australian Open for the first time on Monday. De Minaur defeated Alex Michelsen 6-0, 7-6(5), 6-3 to set up a quarterfinal clash against world No. 1 Jannik Sinner.
De Minaur’s mother was spotted in the crowd immediately after the match. “His mom, Esther, overwhelmed,” Australian broadcaster Todd Wodbridge said in commentary.
With this win, de Minaur became the first Australian to reach the men’s singles last eight stage of the Australian Open since Nick Kyrgios in 2015. The Australian tennis star has now reached the quarterfinal of every Grand Slam.
“This means the world; I love you guys,” De Minaur said in the oncourt interview. “There is nothing I want more than to play well here in Australia. Glad I finally made it to the quarterfinals here, but yeah, let’s go for bigger and better things, come on!”
Michelsen had knocked out 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and 17th seed Karen Khachanov, but failed to bring his A game against de Minaur at Rod Laver Arena.
Eighth seed de Minaur won the first set inside 30 minutes and was storming towards the second when Michelsen made a strong recovery to make it 5-4 in the second set. However, Michelsen missed an easy volley with a 2-1 lead in the tiebreak. The American youngster then failed to win a rally with De Minaur playing a forehand winner.
The Australian was helped by the presence of his mother Esther and fiancé Katie Boulter in the stands. “I had my opportunities in the second set to maybe run away with that one as well, but he raised his level and made it a tough match. That second set was pivotal,” De Minaur said.
De Minaur will now aim to become Australia’s first male champion at the Australian Open since Mark Edmondson in 1976. However, to achieve that, the eighth seed must next defeat the defending champion, Sinner. To make matters even tougher for the Australian star, Sinner has not lost any of their previous encounters.
“I’m looking forward to it, I’m going to have to do something that I haven’t done before but why not start here,” De Minaur said.
