Australian star Alex de Minaur has progressed to the quarter-finals with a stunning four-set win over world number five Daniil Medvedev.
In doing so, he has become the first Australian male to make the quarter-finals of the clay court grand slam in Paris since Lleyton Hewitt did it in 2004. He also becomes the first Australian male to beat a top-five seed on clay since Mark Phillippoussis.
Making the win even more special was De Minaur, in typical fashion, giving off plenty of "never say die" attitude after he dropped the first set 4-6.
He would ultimately come back over the top of the Russian, taking the final three sets 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 in what was a smash-up down the stretch, with the match over in under three hours before screaming "I love the clay."
De Minaur, able to watch from his hotel room, then had it confirmed that he would face German Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals on Wednesday night/Thursday morning (AEST) after he managed to go past Dane Holger Rune in a five-set epic which didn't finish until well after midnight.
The Australian hasn't made a grand slam quarter-final since 2020, and hasn't been this far through the French Open, but the 11th seed could be primed for something special when he comes up against the battle weary Zverev, before the winner clashes with either Novak Djokovic or Casper Ruud in the semi-finals.
The quarter-finals on the other side of the men's singles draw will see Stefanos Tsitisipas take on Carlos Alcaraz, and number two seed Janik Sinner clash with Grigor Dimitrov.
De Minaur said after his win that he was "pretty happy".
โWell, I screamed, โI love the clay. I love it here. I can't get enough,'โ he said.
โI'm pretty happy, (I'm) not going to lie. It was a great match today (and) I fought till the end. (I) managed to beat a quality opponent in a Grand Slam fourth round, which is one of the goals that I had been setting for myself to go deeper at these events. I'm very proud of myself.โ
No Australian man has won a grand slam since Lleyton Hewitt took out Wimbledon in 2002, although Nick Kyrgios - who is great friends with De Minaur - came close when he made the final but came up short against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2022.
