The tennis continued to deliver ratings gold for Nine last night, with the late-night match between Alex De Minaur and Alex Michelsen delivering a total TV national reach of over 2,500,000 each session. The first night session attracted an average audience of 929,000, but as the match heated up, so did viewership, with the second session delivering a national average of 1,367,000.
De Minaur came out of the tunnel, raring to go, taking out the first set 6-0 in what looked so effortless; it seemed that the match would be over in less than an hour.
However, as the second set hit off, Michelsen showed signs of the same player that had beaten world number 11, Stefanos Tsitsipas in four sets back in round one. Fighting back and taking the second set to a tiebreak, it was looking like it could still be anyone’s game.
Things were looking grim, with the Aussie down 5-4 in the tiebreaker. The Demon, however, wasn’t going to stand for that. He fought back in the tiebreak, winning 7-5 to take the second set.
It became very clear, as the third set commenced that Michelsen was out of the fight; defending his sets, he handed the third set and, ultimately, the match to De Minaur 6-3.
De Minaur may have taken the win, but it was his Mum, Esther, that made headlines this morning, with her touching reaction from the crowd catching the eye’s of Nine’s camera crews. Esther could be spotted weeping into her husbands arms as the 25 year old celebrated his win on court, and sharing a sweet moment with future daughter-in-law Katie Boulter.
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With his win, De Minaur has solidified his position in the quarter-finals, making him the first Australian male player to do so since Nick Kyrgios did so in 2015. But, making it further is going to be tough (and is bound to do the numbers for Nine) with a Wednesday match against world number one Jannik Sinner locked in.
