Australian Open Day Nine: Live score and game-by-game updates as Hearts melt at the Australian Open as Alex de Minaur opens up about the REAL reason he’s in career-best form after breezing through to the quarterfinals in straight sets
Follow Mail Sport’s live blog for the latest score, and game-by-game updates as Eva Lys and Iga Swiatek square off at The Rod Laver Arena, with local hero Alex de Minaur set to take on American star Alex Michelsen later tonight.
The moment De Minaur clinched victory!
Alex de Minaur’s fiancee Kate Boulter jumped in the air in delight as her beau secured a berth in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the first time in his career.
His mum Esther had looked very tense and nervous as De Minaur managed to claw his way to deuce against Michelsen. But she too jumped into the air in celebration at the huge victory.
De Minaur: ‘When you’re happy off the court, you play some good tennis on the court’
When pressed on whether his recent engagement to Katie Boulter had anything to do with his rich vein of form, De Minaur said:
I don’t believe in coincidences, when you’re happy off the court, you play some good tennis on the court.
Breaking:Alex De Minaur is through to the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time in his career
Alex de Minaur has advanced to the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time in his career.
De Minaur made hard work of it though. At 0-30 up, the 25-year-old first struck a ball into the net, before sending a return out way over Michelsen’s baseline.
The American hit back with a strong forehand down the right tramline, to pull back another point and go 40-30 but an errant forehand that went long, saw him give the Aussie a lifeline at deuce.
But another errant shot from Michelsen between the left tramlines gave De Minaur the huge victory.
The Aussie fist-bumped the crowd as he sealed victory with the crowd letting out a huge roar.
Katie Boulter reveals how Alex de Minaur has helped her improve as a player
Boulter and De Minaur have been a big talking point at this year’s Australian Open.
Boulter was referred to as ‘Aussie Kate’ last week by an interviewer after she had claimed Australia felt like a home away from home.
While she was knocked out of the tournament by Veronika Kudermetova, the 28-year-old has gained plenty of new fans Down Under.
She also revealed how she has picked up a few things from her beau De Minaur, that have helped her improve her tennis game.
Definitely small habits, you know. Like, nothing really massive comes to mind this exact second. My brain is a little bit fried from the match, but yeah, I think there is always tiny little habits and things that you pick up on and you see.
Even watching him on the tennis court, we are very different. We don’t play the same way, but there are certain things that I see his brain working around. So, you know, when he’s maneuvering someone around the court and it’s very tactical, I’m not that kind of player.
So for me to actually see that, I start thinking to myself, Why am I not doing that, why am I not trying different things? Even though I can hit the bigger shots and go after them, and that’s always going to be my power play, I think seeing things like that and the way he operates, really the small things I can learn from and what he does in the big moments. I think, yeah, that’s really the next step for me, and even talking to him about that is fascinating.
De Minaur thanks the fans after his huge victory
De Minaur signs the camera lens, but what did he write?
The Aussie thanked the crowd several times during his post-match interview after fans inside the Rod Laver Arena roared him through to his first quarter-finals appearance at the Australian Open in his nine starts at the tournament.
De Minaur then performed the customary ritual for tennis players to sign a camera lens at the side of the court.
And in tribute to his fans, he wrote: ‘No place like home’ with a smiley face.
De Minaur is gunning for greatness
There’s nothing I want to do more than play in front of you guys in Australia.
I’ve finally made it through to the quarter-finals here in Australia but let’s go for bigger and better things.
Katie Boulter’s ‘sweet’ act during her warm-up
In case you missed it last week, Katie Boulter produced a ‘sweet’ moment backstage.
While she was preparing for her second-round match against Veronika Kudermetova in the player’s warm-up area, Boulter was seen asking gym staff to change the channel on the television screens so that she could watch her beau play against Tristan Boyer.
Check out the moment below…
Katie Boulter’s ‘sweet’ act during her warm up
In case you missed it last week, Katie Boulter produced a ‘sweet’ moment backstage.
While she was preparing for her second-round match against Veronika Kudermetova in the player’s warm-up area, Boulter was seen asking gym staff to change the channel on the television screens so that she could watch her beau play against Tristan Boyer.
Check out the moment below…
How good is this!
A classy moment now from Ben Shelton tonight as Gael Monfils was forced to retire during their fourth-round clash at the Margaret Court Arena earlier through injury.
Shelton asked the audience to show their appreciation for the 38-year-old Frenchman, who later lauded the young American during his press conference.
I love Ben. I love him. You know, this kid is amazing. He’s full of energy. He’s a great guy, great kid.
Prior to the match, Monfils had issued a heartwarming response to a journalist when he was asked about his life dream.
He was first asked if he could win the Australian Open, and replied:
Win? No! To be honest with you, it’s not even a dream to win the tournament. My dream is to be old with a lot of kids and to be healthy.
That is your dream I guess to win [a Grand] Slam, I guess.
I tell you my dream is to have an unbelievable family. Tennis is cool. Of course, you want a gold dream, whatever. But my dream is out there.
De Minaur comes comes back to take the second set
De Minaur is one of the best recovery players on tour and he’s just shown how clinical he can be when at full stretch.
He is pushed over to the right tramline and somehow manages to thump the ball back from behind him over the net and into the left side of Michelsen’s side of the court to pull level at 5-5.
He clinches the next point before, Michelsen strikes the ball out of play to gift De Minaur the tiebreak and the second set. The crowd are on their feet, with De Minaur running over to raise a fist to the corner of the ground where his family and Boulter are sat, who are all on their feet.
We go to a tiebreak!
This set has become a battle of wills. Both are playing some incredible ground strokes at the net and in this heat, that surely has to be sapping.
De Minaur commented earlier in the week about how his off-season had prepared him to go deep into games this week at the Australian Open.
But he’s dropped a 3-2 lead in the tiebreak, with Michelsen rolling a huge backhand over the net to take the lead.
Rune says he was left ‘cooking in the heat’ during Sinner’s medical time-out
Holger Rune said he was left ‘cooking in the heat’ after world No 1 Jannik Sinner vacated the court for 11 minutes.
Sinner had looked worryingly unwell on court and even began shaking uncontrollably in the extreme heat at Melbourne Park, while tennis great Jim Courier said he looked like a ‘zombie’.
‘Sitting in the heat for me cooking out there is a bit tough,’ said Rune. ‘It is what it is, just have to move on and maybe be smarter next time to wait off court or whatever.’
Matthew Lambert has the full story below…
WADA issues statement on Swiatek’s one-month suspension
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has issued a statement confirming that it will not be lodging an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in regard to tennis star Iga Swiatek.
The Polish star had accepted a one-month suspension in November after the 23-year-old had tested positive for trimetazidine.
The drug is a medicine that is used to treat heart conditions like angina.
Swiatek had failed a doping test in August 2024 when she was World No 1, but the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) stated that there was ‘No significant fault or negligence,’ on Swiatek’s behalf.
Following an investigation, the ITIA concluded that the positive test had been caused by a contamination of a regulated non-prescription medication, melatonin.
Swiatek had taken the drug to help her sleep.
But after she completed a two-set victory against Eva Lys to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, WADA announced that it would not be appealing the ITIA’s decision to suspend Swiatek for a month.
In a statement, WADA said: ‘The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirms that following a thorough review, it will not lodge an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the case of Polish tennis player, Iga Świątek, who tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ), a prohibited substance, in August 2024.’
The statement added: ‘WADA has conducted a full review of the case file related to the ITIA decision, which it received on 29 November. WADA’s scientific experts have confirmed that the specific contaminated melatonin scenario, as presented by the athlete and accepted by the ITIA, is plausible and that there would be no scientific grounds to challenge it at CAS.
‘Further, WADA sought advice from external legal counsel, who considered that the athlete’s contamination explanation was well evidenced, that the ITIA decision was compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, and that there was no reasonable basis to appeal it to the CAS.’
First show of emotion tonight from De Minaur
Many have commented on how cool De Minaur has been at the Australian Open so far, despite the weight of expectations resting on his shoulders.
During his last match against Francisco Cerundolo, De Minaur showed much more emotion, becoming particularly animated after he was forced to fight back from going one set down before he bashed his way to victory.
Tonight, he’s been fairly reserved in his celebrations again, but just let out a little fist bump to save a break point at 2-3 up.
He holds a break against Michelsen in the second set, having gone 3-4 up.
Sinner speaks out on worrying moment
Jannik Sinner did not reveal to journalists during his press conference the nature of his ailment but stated that he had struggled physically during his 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-2 victory against world No 13 Holger Rune.
It was a hot and sticky day on Monday with Temperatures topping out at 33ºc in Melbourne. The air was thick and clammy and Sinner began to struggle.
Concerns arose when he was seen visibly shaking as he sat down for a break, with the Italian also heading off court for a medical time-out.
Thankfully the World No 1 returned to the court but said during his presser that he had been struggling.
Yeah, I don’t want to talk, you know, so much how I felt today. I was not feeling really well. You know, I think we saw that today, I was struggling physically. Came here as late as possible.
You know, I knew that it was going to be very, very difficult today. You know, playing against a tough opponent, but also playing against myself a little bit.
I knew this before. I tried to handle the situation on the court as good as I could, which I think today I handled, you know, as well as possible. You know, happy to be in the next round.
Despite Sinner stating he had felt unwell during the match, the Italian and his Norwegian opponent played out a simply incredible point, which has been dubbed by tennis journalist Jose Morgado as the ‘point of the tournament’.
After a 10-minute break off the court, he later added that the medical attention he received ‘was a bit helpful’.
Yeah, I talked with the doctor before already, before going on the court. I had a little checkup.
Yeah, it was a bit helpful. I at least felt slightly better when I went back on court. I felt like the face looked a little bit better, the color was a little bit back.
So, yeah, that helped, for sure. You know, it’s a tough conditions. You know, yesterday was hot. Today was hot again.
You know, every player, you know, struggles a little bit. When you’re not there health-wise where you want to be, it’s also even more difficult, but it helped, yeah. It gave he some small medication, and then it wasn’t slightly better.
Views!
Here’s the roof opening up on Rod Laver a little earlier tonight.
The temperature has dropped down by quite a bit in here and it’s a little more comfortable for both players here.
Fun fact: It takes around five minutes for the roof to shut on the Rod Laver Arena!
‘If you’re Aussie and you know it clap your hands’
Some of the chants this week around the tennis precinct have been brilliant this week and the Aussies certainly love to get behind the home stars.
De Minaur got a standing ovation there after holding serve to go 2-0 up against the 20-year-old American and there’s a group of Aussie fans in the corner of the stadium now chanting: ‘If you’re Aussie and you know it clap your hands.’
The group are back again, this time chanting: ‘Let’s go Demon, let’s go!’
And in response, a shrill voice from behind me has hilariously just hit back, crying: ‘Let’s go USA!’
Meanwhile, De Minaur is rattling through the first set. He’s just taken a 3-0 lead.
Here come De Minaur and Michelsen
This should be a huge battle between the world No 8 De Minaur and his namesake Michelsen, who sensationally knocked out Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round 3-1.
De Minaur, meanwhile, will be hoping for a better performance tonight and he’s got off to a flying start, breaking his opponent to go 1-0 up.
Should he win tonight, it’ll be the first time De Minaur has reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in his career.
There is quite a bit of pressure on him this week, with De Minaur out to become the first Aussie to win the Australian Open Men’s singles in 49 years.
And Pat Rafter has sent a word of warning to De Minaur to batten down the hatches as he looks to progress tonight.
Eva Lys laps up the occasion
Despite suffering a straight sets defeat tonight against Iga Swiatek, Eva Lys lapped up the atmosphere on court tonight.
Even after going a set down, she continued to smile on court and lapped up a huge cheer after holding serve against Swiatek in the second set.
Swiatek reaches the quarter-finals
That was a pretty massive win from Iga Swiatek.
She clinched it in under an hour as she dominated Eva Lys 6-0 6-1 at the Rod Laver Arena.
The World No 2 is riding high on confidence right now having not dropped a set so far at the Australian Open having also beaten Emma Raducanu 6-1 6-0 to reach the fourth round.
Fit check?
Perhaps one of the most bizarre outfits at the Australian Open we’ve seen this week came from Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s boyfriend.
The pair arrived at The John Cain Arena on Sunday night for Pavlyuchenkova’s straight sets victory against Dona Vekic, with the tennis star’s boyfriend bizarrely donning a green pair of pyjamas to the match.
It was a slightly strange outfit choice, with Pavlyuchenkova sporting a purple dress, as she went on to seal a straight-sets victory against Vekic.
But it’s not the first time we’ve seen her boyfriend donning a pair of PJs at the tennis.
In fact, he was once dubbed the ‘biggest fashion legend in all of tennis,’ by a photographer on the WTA Tour who had snapped him wearing his pyjamas while the pair chatted on court.
Pavlyuchenkova responded: ‘He is.’
Worrying scenes as world No 1 Jannik Sinner scares fans on court
It’s been extremely hot in Melbourne today with temperatures still sitting at 32ºc – and it’s just about to go 8pm.
It’s been a horribly sticky and muggy heat too and the air has been dense around the city.
But amid the heat there was huge concern for world No 1 Jannik Sinner who battled hard to beat Holger Rune 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-2 at Rod Laver Arena earlier in the afternoon session, who sat back on his bench following the second set and seemed in some duress.
It was a worrying moment with commentator Todd Woodbridge telling Channel 9: ‘He looks distressed. He doesn’t take water, there is no towel. He looks ill.’
Jim Courier claimed that the Italian looked as though he was sucking in air heavily before saying: ‘He looked like his stomach didn’t feel right. He is definitely suffering big time in this heat and that is a surprise to me. I did not see this coming.’
Sinner would later leave the court for a medical timeout and Courier noticed that he was walking in the wrong direction.
‘He looks disorientated, didn’t even know where he was heading,’ he said.
‘He almost looks like a zombie walking across the court.’
But the most concerning moment came later in the match, when Sinner was seen shaking during the following changeover.
At 3-2 he took a medical time out. It was here that he had his blood pressure taken. But after 10 minutes off the court, Sinner returned and he thankfully looked much better.
This isn’t the first time Kyrgios has hit out at Jones in the past few days
Nick Kyrgios and Novak Djokovic were due to play doubles together in an exhibition match at Rod Laver Arena prior to the start of the Australian Open.
The pair had previously joined forces at the Brisbane International three weeks ago, and despite having butted heads in the past, seem to have become great friends.
So it is no surprise that Kyrgios has risen to the defence of his doubles partner several times this week, first hitting out at Tony Jones after the Channel 9 presenter’s controversial comments last week, branding him a ‘clown’.
Kyrgios shared a clip of Jones’ comments earlier this week, captioning the post: ‘Coming from this clown – couldn’t run around a park this bloke.’
After Jones dropped his apology on Monday during the Today Show, the Aussie tennis firebrand again struck out at Jones.
In a video posted to Facebook on Monday, which showed the area where Nine broadcasts from at Melbourne Park, Kyrgios said in a voiceover: ‘How the f*** does this guy still have a f***ing job? It is putrid stuff. Tony Jones, you absolute flop. F***ing Chompers, mate.’
‘Chompers’ is a nickname Jones got saddled with after having work done on his teeth more than 10 years ago and he’s known to hate the moniker.’
Back to the tennis quickly…
Right, so I’m currently sat at The Rod Laver Arena and Iga Swiatek is dominating here tonight against Eva Lys.
The world No 2 clinched a 6-0 lead in the first set that has lasted just under 30 minutes.
Swiatek is certainly on fire here tonight and things aren’t looking so good for Lys, who has gone 1-0 down in the second set and has just double-faulted as she returns to serve.
Despite that, Lys is fighting hard against the five-time Grand Slam winner, and the crowd are right behind her.
Let’s just zoom in quick to see what was on Kyrgios’ shirt
I’ve also just noticed that Kyrgios was hilariously wearing a T-shirt that appeared to have a graphic of Novak Djokovic on it.
The video, which was captioned ‘Live News……’ is attracting a lot of comments from many throughout Australia and the world.
Andrew Bogut was one who reacted to the video posting a ‘sunglasses emoji’.
Nick Kyrgios mocks Tony Jones with scathing Instagram skit
Nick Kyrgios has brutally hit out at Tony Jones during a skit published on his Instagram channel.
The Australian appeared in a skit alongside comedian Elliot Loney with the pair proceeding to perform a parody of the moment Jones had mocked Djokovic earlier this week.
Instead Kyrgios pretends to present a live news segment with Loney pretending to play Novak Djokovic.
Kyrgios says to the camera: ‘And that’s what’s making live news around the globe. Nick Kyrgios live news.’
The camera then turned to Loney, who began to repeat Jones’ chant that caused the scandal earlier this week, but with a few changes.
‘Kyrgios is a has-been… Kyrgios is overrated… Kyrgios kick him out,’ he said, laughing.
‘Boy I’m glad he cannot hear me, you know, because that would be…’
Kyrgios interjected: ‘Novak, we’re on live Television mate.
‘Of course, of course, who would be stupid enough to say that on live television,’ Loney replied.
‘Exactly,’ Kyrgios replied.
Meanwhile, Djokovic has been branded a ‘drama queen!’
While Djokovic has received widespread backing following his spat with Channel 9’s Tony Jones there are some who haven’t risen to support the world No 7.
One includes Australian independent senator Jacqui Lambie who had previously called for Djokovic to be deported from Australia because of his vaccination status.
Elon Musk and Piers Morgan have even weighed in on the spat…
The spat between Tony Jones and Novak Djokovic has been not only the talk of the media centre here at Melbourne Park, but it seems the talk of Twitter!
Elon Musk and Piers Morgan have both weighed in on the matter, here’s what the British journalist said on the matter, while you can read the SpaceX founder’s comment and Djokovic’s reply down below…
Tony Jones’ apology
So this morning, Jones appeared on Channel 9’s the Today Show where he made a public address to Djokovic.
It is understood he had made a previous attempt to contact the world No 7’s team and had also issued a statement apologising to a Balkan TV and sports outlet last week.
Djokovic had demanded a ‘public’ apology from the Channel 9 broadcaster who addressed his comments on live television on Monday.
The comments were made on the news on the Friday night, which I considered to be banter,’ Jones said on the Today Show.
I considered it to be humour, which is consistent with most things I do, whether it be the Sunday Footy Show or whether it be the Morning Show here.
Having said that, I was made aware on the Saturday morning from Tennis Australia via the Djokovic camp that the Djokovic camp was not happy at all with those comments.
Now, as such, I immediately contacted the Djokovic camp and issued an apology to them. So this is 48 hours ago.
For any disrespect that Novak felt that I’d caused, and as I stand here now, I stand by that apology to Novak if he felt any disrespect, which quite clearly he does.
They come here with the flags and they provide so much colour and so much passion, and there was banter so I thought what I was doing was an extension of that banter,’ he said.
Quite clearly that hasn’t been interpreted that way, so I do feel as though I’ve let down the Serbian fans.
I’m just saying and not to try and wriggle out of trouble or anything, I genuinely feel for those fans.
Now I can stand here and put whatever spin I want in that, but it can only be interpreted as a throwback to the COVID years when he was kicked out (of Australia for not having a visa),’ he added.
Now that has angered Novak, which I completely understand now.
It’s an unfortunate situation. It’s been one of personal angst for Novak. It’s quite clearly personal angst for me as well. But I think the priority here now is to focus on the tennis again.
Novak responds…
Good afternoon and welcome back to an insanely hot day at Melbourne Park.
I’m just going to jump straight in as it’s been a busy hour here in the media centre.
Novak Djokovic has issued a response to Tony Jones’ apology earlier this morning in a statement via Tennis Australia.
I’m sure you will have seen the huge saga unfold over the past few days, but if not, Jones came under fire for his rather explosive comments during a live television broadcast with Channel 9 in Australia.
The broadcaster had ‘offended and insulted’ Djokovic, after he had claimed the 24-time Grand Slam winner was a ‘has been’ in a bizarre television segment.
Yesterday evening, Djokovic booked his passage to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the 15th time in his distinguished career.
But after the match, he stayed to conduct a post-match interview only briefly, before revealing in his press conference that he would not be doing any further interviews on-court until he received a public apology from Jones.
Jones claimed this morning that he had reached out to Djokovic’s team over the past few days to apologise and had also issued a statement to a Balkan TV and news outlet SportKlub, again saying sorry for his comments on television.
It has all kicked off since then, with some branding his apology this morning ‘hollow’ while others, including Nick Kyrgios have lashed out at the Channel 9 presenter.
Djokovic though, has accepted his apology and now wants to move on from the moment that has engulfed the tournament over the past few days.
Read the full story below…
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Australian Open Day Nine: Live score and game-by-game updates as Hearts melt at the Australian Open as Alex de Minaur opens up about the REAL reason he’s in career-best form after breezing through to the quarterfinals in straight sets