Alex de Minaur is in comfortable form in the second week of Wimbledon and has declared himself a lucky man.
The Australian number one only needed a two-set straight win and a bye to reach the crucial final stretch of the tournament, easing into the second week of his second grass-court Grand Slam.
Having never been given the bonus of a walkover after Lucas Pouille withdrew due to injury in his 74 Grand Slam singles career, “The Demon” believes this has been his most stress-free journey ever towards the final match of a major tournament.
While many of his rivals, including his fourth-round opponent Arthur Fils, suffered frustrating delays when play was again interrupted by rain, de Minaur had the luxury of an easier Saturday after his third-round opponent Pouille withdrew with an abdominal injury.
De Minaur ultimately praised the former French world number one for his “great behaviour” in withdrawing from the match on Saturday morning, an hour and 45 minutes before kick-off.
“Yeah, I’m definitely lucky. It’s probably most noticeable when the weather is not great like it is today and tomorrow,” said de Minaur, who has reached the fourth round of a four-straight Grand Slam and is the favorite to reach his first quarter-final at SW19.
“So I’m really lucky that this happened and I can just move on and look forward to the next game and prepare for it.
“What was probably a very long day of waiting on the court, having to stop and restart, now we can get ready for the next match straight away.”
De Minaur said he found out at about 9:15 a.m., while warming up before taking to the court, when the 30-year-old Pouille himself approached him and told him he was not fit to play.
“I thought it was a great move on his part to let us know early in the day when the weather forecast predicted long delays,” de Minaur said.
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“I wish him a speedy recovery and for me, it’s a bit of a relief because we all knew what it was going to be like and we all knew it was going to be a long day so I was able to finish pretty quickly.”
De Minaur’s next opponent will be Fils, a 20-year-old French player ranked 34th in the world. Fils defeated Russian No. 44 Roman Safiullin 4-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a rain-interrupted match that took three hours and 15 minutes.
Reaching the fourth round is now becoming the norm for de Minaur, with the Australian reaching the second week in seven of his last 11 Grand Slams after only doing so twice in his first 17, proving he is beginning to feel like he belongs among the elite.
So far, de Minaur has seemed to be cruising along, with three-set wins over James Duckworth of Australia and Jaume Mauner of Spain in his opening two matches.
“Making it to week two is a great start and I want to go even further,” de Minaur said. “You do whatever you can to survive week one, right? And if you can get through that first week, it feels like a whole new tournament.”
“As I’ve said for a long time, this is where I wanted to be.”
