Aussie Alex de Minaur has crashed out of the French Open quarter-finals

Alex de Minaur’s French Open campaign is over.

The Australian will be cursing himself after he let golden opportunities slip through his fingers on Thursday before his German opponent Alexander Zverev finally won 6-4 7-6 6-4 in three tight sets that stretched over three hours..

Despite de Minaur having the crowd behind him, it was world No. 4 Zverev that succeeded in the big moments.

Earlier, it was the 25-year-old de Minaur’s superfan Paul that stole the show.

Paul’s enthusiastic support of De Minaur has melted hearts in recent days since De Minaur made a public call to find young fan “Paul” and to bring him to all his matches for the rest of the tournament.

Tournament organisers gave Paul a full kit of de Minaur’s clothing so he looked like a mini version of the Australian as he cheered courtside.

DE MINAUR MAKES QUARTER FINALS

Australia’s Alex de Minaur upset Russian star Daniil Medvedev in an impressive four-set victory on Tuesday to become the first Australian man in two decades to make the quarter-finals at the French Open tennis tournament.

De Minaur took control of the match from the second set* to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 against fifth-seed* Medvedev.

De Minaur had never advanced past the second round at the tournament before this year.

But he has improved on clay* this season, also reaching a first Masters quarter-final on the surface in Monte Carlo.

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy. I’m not going to lie. It’s one of my best Slam* results. Looks like I’ve converted* myself into a clay specialist*,” De Minaur said.

He is the first Australian male player to reach the French Open final eight since former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in 2004. Hewitt now mentors De Minaur.

A young fan who De Minaur said “gave him life” and good luck with his enthusiastic support during the 25-year-old’s third-round win over Jan-Lennard Struff was courtside again after the 11th seed Aussie invited him to watch.

“We found him, obviously, through the beautiful world of social media, we ended up finding him. We got him to the match,” said De Minaur.

“I think he’ll be chilling with me tomorrow in my practice day, and of course he’ll be there for the very next match.”

Medvedev, a former US Open champion and six-time Grand Slam finalist, started strongly but admitted De Minaur “played better”.

“To be honest, I’m disappointed to lose, but I don’t have anything to tell myself in a tough way like I was not, good attitude today or I was not fighting till the end,” he said.

“I did all of this. He played better.”

POLL

GLOSSARY

• set: a unit of scoring in tennis. A player wins a set when they have won six games and are at least two games clear of their opponent
• fifth-seed: a seed is the ranking given to a player before a tournament to ensure a fair draw among players. Fifth-seed is the fifth top player.
• clay: a tennis court surface built on a foundation of crushed stone, brick, shale, and sand, with a thin layer of fine clay particles on top
• Slam: one of the four major tennis tournaments held each year
• converted: changed or transformed into something else
• specialist: a person highly skilled in an activity or area of interest

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QUICK QUIZ
1. Who was the last Australian player to make the French Open quarter-finals?
2. What improvement has helped De Minaur at this tournament?
3. Who is De Minaur’s good luck charm in Paris?
4. What seeding did Russian player Daniel Medvedev have?
5. De Minaur won the match in four sets. What is a set?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Tennis Ranking System
Australian Alex de Minaur is ranked 11th in the world but managed to beat Medvedev who is ranked 5th in the world. Explain how these rankings might work in tennis tournaments to make the draw even and fair?

Next match, De Minaur plays Alexander Zverev, who is ranked 4th in the world. Do you think the fact that these players are ranked higher than him affects his mindset before a big game?

After progressing to the quarter-finals, over players ranked above him, what ranking do you think he will progress to, if he were to go all the way to the final?

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Mathematics, Health and Physical education, Personal and social, Critical and creative thinking.

2. Extension
On social media, one fan wrote “It’s impossible to hate on De Minaur. His tennis is amazing, his attitude is amazing, and he even spoke French” in an on court interview after the match.

How does Alex de Minaur’s sportsmanship and attitude compare to some other less well-behaved athletes that you know of?

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical education, Personal and social, Critical and creative thinking.

VCOP ACTIVITY
1. Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you are the young fan invited to sit courtside by Aussie player Alex de Minaur.

Create a conversation between you and Alex after he won the match against Medvedev. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speech in the correct places.