Last night, De Minuar’s first round match win against Botic van de Zandschulp raked in the numbers for Nine, with the Network reaching a Total TV National Reach of 2,326,000. The Lebanese community cheered on as Hady Habib became the first-ever Lebanese player in the Open Era to reach the main draw of a grand slam tournament.
Alex de Minaur won his first round match in straight sets, then had time to cheer on his fiancee Katie Boulter as she fought through in three sets to progress into the second round of the Australian Open.
De Minaur flew through the first set against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp, but the world number 84 fought back to push the Australian number one all the way.
However, the eighth seed prevailed 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.
Hady Habib was born in Houston, Texas, but at the age of six, his family chose to return to Lebanon where he first picked up a racket. With limited infrastructure in Lebanon, he had to travel in order to train.
Going into the final week of competition on the ATP Challenger Tour last year, he was ranked 320 and about 100 places below the Australian Open cut-off for the qualifying draw of the tournament.
“His success means so much more than just winning a match,” James Habib, Hady Habib’s cousin, said.
“He is allowing us to resonate with our roots again. For a lot of us, Lebanon is just something our parents knew, somewhere they came from”.
His win sparked wild celebrations, with members of the local Lebanese community in Melbourne dancing the traditional ‘dabke‘ dance.
De Minaur’s fiancee Katie Boulter was battling against Canadian Rebecca Marino, which he described as more stressful than his own match.
Only moments after winning his match, de Minaur bolted from Rod Laver Arena to KIA Arena and watched the last set of Boulter’s first round match.
De Minaur and Boulter had announced their engagement in December.
“2024 was a special year and it ended in the best possible way, I’m very happy that happened,” de Minaur said post-match about his engagement.
“There is a scoreboard that keeps alternating with different results throughout the day … you don’t really want to be thinking about it, because you want to be focusing on your own match, then all of a sudden you see the results of Katie’s match.
“You try not to pay too much attention and focus on yourself, but the sheer fact that it’s always coming around, it makes it difficult.”
De Minaur arrived mid-way through the second set to see the British number 22 win 6-4, 3-6, 7-4.
“I’m guessing he won,” Boulter said after winning her match.
Aside from de Minaur, it was unfortunately a quiet day for Aussies, with five other singles campaigns over at the first hurdle.
Emerson Jones. Kim Birrell, Rinky Hijikata, Alexei Popyrin and Olivia Gadecki all lost, with doubles wildcard team Talia Gibson and Maya Joint also falling short.
Elsewhere, there were wins for seeded players Emma Navarro, Holger Rune, Daniil Medvedev, Jasmin Paolini and Elena Rybakina.
But ninth seed Andrey Rublev fell to Brazilian 18-year-old João Fonseca in straight sets.
Over on Seven, Cricket: BBL – Hobart v Mel Renegades reached a Total TV National reach of 1,828,000 and a Total TV National Average Audience of 510,000, with HUR winning by four wickets.
On Channel 10, Jack Reacher RPT saw a Total TV National reach of 1,020,000.
