Alex De Minaur wins Wimbledon match despite 'not being able to serve' due to injury scare
Alex De Minaur beat Arthur Fils in four sets
Alex De Minaur suffered a big injury scare as he dug deep to beat Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals. The Aussie, who was cheered on by girlfriend Katie Boulter, struggled with a back issue for most of the fourth set.
As he scooped low to convert the winning match point near the net, he stood still on the court and did not immediately celebrate.
The No.7 seed walked gingerly towards the net to shake hands with Fils and then headed back to his courtside chair, where he looked in discomfort.
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There are now concerns over whether De Minaur will be fully fit when he returns to action in two days time.
"I definitely made it a lot harder than I should have," he said. "I'm happy to get through, great job mentally to get through it, even though I couldn't serve at the end.
"I couldn't hold my serve, I just backed my return and I'm very happy with that. It's just onto the next."
De Minaur takes on the winner of Holger Rune vs Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
When asked who he would prefer to face, the 25-year-old said: "I'm just excited to be in the quarter-finals and have another battle, give myself a shot.
"One thing you can definitely count on is me going out there trying my hardest and giving it my best."
De Minaur will be watching Djokovic and Rune tonight with a keen interest and it is set to be an exciting affair between two players who regularly practice together.
"I actually get along very well with him. He's a very nice guy," Djokovic said of Rune. "Always has been to me and to my team, and vice versa. I always try to be available to him for any practice or advice or guidance or anything like that.
"I remember him since he was quite young. He appeared I think in south of France, Monaco, where I was based, been training. He was in Mouratoglou. We trained a lot on different surfaces, spent some time.
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"His mother, his sister, they all been quite nice to us. I like our relationship. I think we get along very well. We respect each other. I think we have quite similar styles of tennis.
"But when it comes to playing on the court and competing, obviously we both have that fire. I'm sure that on Monday we'll see a lot of fireworks on the court. He's a spectacular player, no doubt. He loves the big stage, loves playing on grass. I think he's very, very tricky opponent.
"It's going to take my best tennis to win."