Australian tennis star Alex de Minaur enjoyed his career-best victory on the Roland Garros circuit before racing to girlfriend Katie Boulter’s late-night match to cheer her on.
The Australian No. 1 and his young American opponent Alex Michelsen had to hang around for a while, including a false start when they actually got onto Court Simmone Mathieu and were dragged off again before they even had a chance to warm up.
But when they finally got going on Tuesday, with De Minaur wearing a thermal undershirt to keep out the cold on the humid, miserable day, he still lit up Roland Garros’ most beautiful ‘garden court’ with his 6-1 6-0 6 -2 demolition work on the 19-year-old who shot him on a hard court in Los Cabos in April.
‘The Demon’ was spotted shortly afterwards at friend Katie Boulter’s evening match on Court 9, where she faced Paula Badosa.
A photo of him cheering on his fist emerged on social media, with it also noted that Badosa’s friend Stefanos Tsitsipas was not present.
Alex de Minaur cruised to victory in straight sets against rising American star Alex Michelsen
De Minaur’s match had its own controversial moments, with his teenage opponent throwing a tantrum over a referee’s decision, which drew whistles from the crowd.
Michelsen responded to a line call by shouting at the referee: ‘Oh my god! Oh my God! Oh my God! that’s the least funny thing I’ve ever heard in my life!’ with the outburst being put down by tennis fans.
And although he is too nice a man to enjoy it, De Minaur could not hide his satisfaction that revenge was a dish best served cold and wet.
‘I didn’t have an easy time today. Clearly a long day, stop, start. Especially mentally, dealing with cold and rain in your face. I just had to make sure I had a good mentality today. That’s probably the most important thing.
‘Every time I come here to Paris, I feel like it’s raining. I can only remember a few times where I feel like I’ve played a hot day here, and unfortunately I remember a lot of matches like this.
‘But I knew what to expect. I was done. I had the thermal layer of my undershirt on. Yes, I was ready for a fight in the cold and rain.’
Much more ready than his young opponent, who looked completely disappointed by the clay, the rain, De Minaur’s killer drop shots and, last but not least, a referee whom he wildly berated for one bad decision as if he were a Supermac de nos jours used to be. .
When asked about his defeat to Michelsen in Mexico, de Minaur chose his words carefully.
‘That match I had actually flown from Rotterdam the night before from an indoor event to an outdoor event in Mexico. It was a very quick turnaround. So I probably wasn’t quite ready to play, but today I was definitely ready.”
After finishing his match, the Aussie was seen cheering on girlfriend Katie Boulter
Alex Michelsen became animated during the match with De Minaur
Michelsen threw a tantrum over a referee’s decision he disagreed with
His performance was littered with some virtuoso shotmaking and de Minaur, who next meets Spanish clay-court stalwart Jaume Munar, was most pleased with the way he weathered the tough conditions by looking on the positive side of life.
“The most important thing was to be positive all day because it’s very easy to start complaining about the weather, the conditions, everything, but if you start down that rabbit hole you can probably guarantee you’re not going to do that. play a match at a good level.
‘So you have to take it lightly. You have to see the positive side of it. Even though it’s kind of fake it until you make it, right?
“I said to myself walking into the game, ‘I love these kinds of conditions, you know I wish every day was like this.’
After the way he played, he might want that now.