Alex de Minaur has fought off a determined comeback from Arthur Fils to win his way through to the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time. He will take on Novak Djokovic next.
A bizarrely muted celebration and ambiguous response when asked about his body after the match left an injury cloud hanging over Australia's best men's player but he later insisted he would be good to go.
De Minaur slipped at one point during the match and appeared to injure a hip or groin.
The 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win was a study in strategy against power as the Australian ninth seed suffocated the Frenchman with indefatigable defence in the first two sets before seeming to tense up when victory was within touching distance in the third.
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"I just slid out to a forehand [and] felt like I jarred it a little bit. [My hip] kind of was a little bit ginger. It's probably a little bit of a scare more than anything," de Minaur said.
"I'm feeling pretty decent. My body went through a pretty physical match out there [and] feels a little bit ginger everywhere – I'm not going to lie. I've done my recovery. I'm sure I'll be feeling great tomorrow."
It was the perfect start for de Minaur, who broke Fils to love in the opening game and didn't miss a return for half the first set.
Fils upped the aggression to break first in the second but that quickly tipped over to impatience, allowing de Minaur to win five games in a row and ease through the set.
The Frenchman's approach was typified by one point he dominated before de Minaur made two incredible baseline saves, prompting the Frenchman to try a doomed 'tweener winner from the baseline.
Eventually Fils fought his way back into the match with variation, opening up opportunities for his booming backhand by mixing up the pace and height of his groundstrokes.
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Up two sets and four games to two in the third, de Minaur crumbled, his first serve percentage plummeting as he allowed Fils to break twice in a row to force it to a fourth.
De Minaur admitted the surge, spurred on by a vocal crowd wanting more than three sets for their money, brought make memories of his horror 2022 capitulation to Chile's Christian, also from two sets up in the round of 16.
"There was a lot going through my mind. I'm happy I was able to finish it off in the end," he said after the match.
"It definitely wasn't easy. It definitely wasn't straightforward. But hey I'm sitting here in the quarter-finals so happy days."
The first game of the fourth was a carbon copy of the opening game of the match but de Minaur ran into real trouble at 3-1 up fighting back from 0-40 to hold before breaking his opponent again in the next game.
"The epitome of grit," Robbie Koenig said on Nine commentary.
"A monumental hold in the context of this contest."
Neither player could buy a service game hold for the rest of the set.
"I definitely made it a lot harder than I probably should have," de Minaur said after the match.
"But again, happy to get through, great job mentally to stay with it, even though I couldn't serve at the end – couldn't hold my serve.
"I just backed my return, so very happy with that and on to the next."
De Minaur eventually broke for a final time to close out the match with a deft forehand volley winner.
But instead of triumph or even relief, he greeted the win with a kind of stony silence, immediately sparking injury concerns when replays showed him appearing to land slightly awkwardly.
Cameras captured him mouthing to his box and shaking his head before the on-court interview, where he was asked if he was OK.
"I'll be all right," he said, without elaborating.
"I'll find a way."
A few hours later, he went into more detail, saying he had felt something in the "hip area" when he slid out to a forehand on his first match point.
"It felt like I jarred it a little bit and kind of was a little bit ginger but again, it's probably a little bit of a scare more than anything," de Minaur said.
"The situation was tight and in a way it helped me relax and finish off the match."
The Aussie said he was "feeling pretty decent again".
"Body went through, you know, a pretty physical match out there so body feels a little bit ginger everywhere, I'm not gonna lie," he said.
"But, you know, I've done my recovery and I'm sure I'll be feeling great tomorrow."
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