Alex de Minaur has become the first local man since John Newcombe to make the fourth round of the Australian Open five years in a row.
The world No.6 endured some nervous moments to progress to the round of 16, winning 6-3 6-4 7-5 over big-hitting American Frances Tiafoe on Friday night.
It took de Minaur two hours 43 minutes to take down the 29th seed, who never gave up on Rod Laver Arena.
In his first match of the tournament against a seeded opponent, de Minaur completed his fourth win from five outings against the talented, but often-wayward Tiafoe.
The dual major semi-finalist virtually handed the first set to de Minaur due to a series of unforced errors.
De Minaur broke serve twice during the second set and appeared to be crushing Tiafoe’s spirit.
But Tiafoe did pull one of the breaks back to force de Minaur to close out the set.
A short break at the start of the third set due to a person in the crowd falling unwell didn’t seem to immediately halt the rampant Australian’s momentum.
Tiafoe gave de Minaur a slight scare towards the end, getting back on serve and defending match points.
But ‘Demon’ broke back at 5-5, before serving for the match.
“Francis is a hell of a competitor, a hell of a player, it was a hell of a battle,” de Minaur said. “I played some of my best tennis in the tournament for two and a half sets, and he just lifted it when he needed it.
“In my brain, I don’t associate playing in Australia with pressure, I associate it with just excitement.
“I’ve known since I was a little kid this is where I wanted to be, where I wanted to play, in front of packed crowds.
“I’m truly fortunate to be in this position.
“Yes, it gets stressful at times, but that’s only because I want it so bad, so I’ll do my best.”
De Minaur will meet Kazakhstan 10th seed Alexander Bublik or Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the fourth round on Sunday, before a potential quarter-final clash with world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz.
