TONGUE TWISTER
Last Aussie hope Alex can’t believe he was licked by Rublev in Melbourne thriller
ALEX DE MINAUR admitted he was devastated after an agonising five-set defeat that ended home singles hopes at the Australian Open.
The Aussie No.1 played an outrageous forehand around the net from outside the tramlines (above, left) on his way to winning the second-set tiebreak against Andrey Rublev.
But, despite the support of his girlfriend Katie Boulter (above), Sir Rod Laver, and a vocal crowd, he crashed out to the Russian world No.5 (main picture).
De Minaur, who was seeking to become the first Aussie male to win the title here since 1976, was consoled by British No.1 Boulter in the players’ corridor after the four-hour epic.
But the 24-year-old looked haunted after his third consecutive fourthround defeat here in Melbourne. “It’s a tough, tough match to finish up my campaign here,” De Minaur said. “Obviously I had aspirations for more. Yeah, my time here was cut short.
“I’m absolutely devastated because I saw it as a great opportunity and a match I strongly believed
I would win. But it just slipped away. Andrey deserved the win today. He played too good in the fourth and fifth sets.
“He just let go and started swinging freely, caught a little purple patch. The racquet was taken out of my hand. Yeah, it was too good in the end. He just let loose.”
Rublev, whose 6-4 6-7 6-7 6-3 6-0 win booked him a showdown with world No.4 Jannik Sinner of Italy, said: “I told myself when I was two sets to one down ‘You will die today but you will do everything’ and somehow I was able to win. Inside my head it’s like a scary movie.”
Novak Djokovic claimed he wanted to lose a game during a devastating display as he equalled a Roger Federer record.
The Serbian superstar reached his 58th Major quarter-final – and 14th here – by beating Adrian Mannarino 6-0 6-0 6-3. The world No.1 was on his way to more history with a first triple bagel in sight when he won the first 13 games against Frenchman Mannarino before the No.20 seed finally got on the board to huge applause, after 69 minutes.
“I really wanted to lose that game in the third set because the tension was building up so much in the stadium,” said the 10-time Aussie Open champion.
“I needed to get that out of the way and refocus on what I needed to do to finish the match.”
Djokovic will now face Taylor Fritz after the No.12 seed beat last year’s runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5 5-7 6-3 6-3.
It was the American’s first win over a top-10 player at a Grand Slam - and at the end he looked to his box and said: “I told you.”
He explained: “I thought I was going to win but my girlfriend told me I was too confident going into the match.”
Influencer Morgan Riddle, Fritz’s partner, told her 212,000 followers that she’d eat a pot of Vegemite, the Aussie version of Marmite, if Fritz won.
He laughed: “I won’t be partaking but I will make sure it happens. I have tried it. I wasn’t the biggest fan.”
Djokovic has never lost to Fritz in eight meetings.