Alex de Minaur can be excused for having a few nerves closing out his fourth-round victory against Frenchman Arthur Fils today at Wimbledon 2024.

Two years ago, the 25-year-old came tantalisingly close to advancing to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, only to squander a two-set lead, plus two match points, in a heartbreaking loss to Chile’s Cristian Garin.

But the scars of that five-hour battle are long gone, with ninth-seeded De Minaur playing with more conviction and self-belief than ever. This was evident as he survived a late comeback from world No.34 Fils to triumph 6-2 6-4 4-6 6-3 at No.1 Court.

“I’m super proud of myself to be into the quarterfinals here at Wimbledon,” a relieved De Minaur said.

“I definitely made it a lot harder than I probably should have, but happy to get through.”

He also downplayed any injury concerns after appearing to hurt himself in the final stages of his victory, although revealing to media he felt some pain in his “hip area”.

“(I) just slid out to a forehand on my first match point, felt like I jarred it a little bit,” the world No.9 said. “Kind of was a little bit ginger. Again, it’s probably a little bit of a scare more than anything. Situation was tight. In a way, (it) helped me relax and finish off the match.”

De Minaur is not concerned the injury scare will hurt his chances in the quarterfinals, where he will face world No.2 Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic dominated his highly-anticipated fourth-round clash with Holger Rune, beating the young Dane for the loss of just nine games.

“I’m feeling pretty decent,” said the Australian No.1. “(My) body went through a pretty physical match out there. Body feels a little bit ginger everywhere, I’m not going to lie.

“(But) I’ve done my recovery. I’m sure I’ll be feeling great tomorrow.”

Determined against Fils not to let a two-set advantage slip again, De Minaur continued to heap the pressure on his less-experienced opponent.

His incredible speed and defensive skills was forcing Fils to play longer points, which led to a costly 66 unforced errors from the Frenchman.

“There was a lot going through my mind, so happy I was able to finish it off in the end.”

Alex de Minaur

There was a slight moment of concern for De Minaur though towards of the end of the third set, when he was broken serving for a 5-3 lead. A fired-up Fils took his chance, winning four consecutive games to take the set and keep his hopes alive.

This could have easily rattled De Minaur, but instead he maintained his composure to build a 5-2 lead and eventually sealed victory after two hours and 54 minutes on court.

“There was a lot going through my mind, so happy I was able to finish it off in the end,” De Minaur said. “It definitely wasn’t easy. It definitely wasn’t straightforward.

“At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect, if it’s pretty, if it’s ugly or what it is, right? At the end of the day if I win the last point and I’m shaking my opponent’s hand and I have a big grin on my face, then it means I got the job done.”

This career-best run at the All England Club sees De Minaur become just the eighth Australian to progress to a men’s singles quarterfinal at Wimbledon in the past 30 years.

The others are:

• Jason Stoltenberg (1996)
• Todd Woodbridge (1997)
• Mark Philippoussis (1998, 1999, 2003)
• Pat Rafter (1999, 2000, 2001)
• Lleyton Hewitt (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009)
• Bernard Tomic (2011)
• Nick Kyrgios (2014, 2022)

De Minaur’s compatriot Alexei Popyrin, who lost to Djokovic in the third round last week, believes his friend “can go all the way” at Wimbledon.

“I think he can cause damage, honestly,” Popyrin said. “He’s one of the most in-form players in the world right now and he can go out there and cause damage – and he should believe that.”

De Minaur might not not yet projecting that far ahead, but is nonetheless looking forward to his showdown with Djokovic, a seven-time Wimbledon champion.

“I’m just excited to have another battle and give myself a shot,” De Minaur said.

“One thing you can definitely count on, is me going out there and playing my heart out and trying my hardest.”