For much of his afternoon on court against Alexander Zverev, Alex de Minaur seemed destined to end his day with an excruciating defeat. De Minaur had rapidly found himself down a set and a break, then Zverev served for the match at 6-2, 5-4. After miraculously giving himself another lifeline, De Minaur finally faced a match point at 8-9 in the final set tie-break.
No matter how grim the scoreline appeared, though, every effort he made was punctuated by roars of approval from one person in particular. There were loud screams of encouragement, pounding of chairs and stamping of feet. At one point, as doubt had crept into Zverev’s game during the second set tie-break, that unmistakable voice from the sidelines yelled out: “Check his oil! Check his oil!”
