Alex de Minaur’s ‘cute’ act for fiancée Katie Boulter melts hearts.
Alex de Minaur has melted the hearts of tennis fans with a wholesome act on a perfect day for the Aussie and his tennis star fiancée.
Tuesday night at the Australian Open couldn’t have gone much better for tennis’ new golden couple Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter.
De Minaur got his campaign off to a solid start with a straight sets victory over Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands, winning 6-1 7-5 6-4.
The eighth seed is on a mission to make the second week at Melbourne Park, where he has reached the fourth round three times.
Moments after clinching the win, de Minaur raced from Rod Laver Arena over to KIA Arena to watch the last set of his Boulter’s first round match against Canada’s Rebecca Marino.
De Minaur and Boulter announced their engagement in December — much to the delight of their fans.
“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.
“In saying that she’s playing right now so I better get out there and watch.”
While riding an exercise bike in the cooldown area, De Minaur was seen pumping his first as Boulter held serve at the start of the third set.
He then headed over to watch the closing stages of the match from Boulter’s player’s box.
The Aussie was on the edge of his seat and celebrated as Boulter wrapped up the 6-4 3-6 7-5 win, as you can see in the video above.
One fan wrote on social media: “This is really cute. He rushed over after his match.”
A second said: “lmao, bro was more pumped than after he won his own match.”
Another said: “ATP boyfriends, pls take note.”
“I’m guessing he won,” Boulter said after seeing de Minaur in the crowd.
“I kind of figured if he lost, he might not be sat there, so I went with the win, and I heard a massive roar, so I figured that was an Aussie win. So yeah, I’m so happy to see him through.”
The World No. 25 is Britain’s top ranked female player and enjoyed a breakout season last year, winning her first WTA title at the San Diego Open.
Last year, de Minaur raced to catch an early morning flight to watch Boulter’s final in San Diego after he won the Mexican Open.
“From the moment I landed here in Australia, in Sydney as well, I felt the love, and I can’t tell you how much it means to me, and yeah, just thank you so much,” Boulter said.
It’s the third time Boulter has made the second round at the Australian Open.
The 28-year-old had a good-natured dig at her fiance after de Minaur posted a photo showing off his ever-growing biceps, which got plenty of fans hot under the collar.
“Prep done. Go time now. See you on RLA tomorrow,” he wrote on Instagram.
Boulter did her best to pretend she was not amused.
“Stop trying to thirst trap you have a fiance,” she posted.
De Minaur could do no wrong on Tuesday, further endearing himself to tennis fans with an act of sportsmanship during his match.
The No. 8 seed was about to serve for the second set on Rod Laver Arena when he noticed an irregularity in the balls he was given.
The Aussie No. 1 noticed a new ball had entered the rotation of balls prematurely — a nice gift for a player about to serve for a two-set lead.
Cameras captured the moment de Minaur walked over to the chair umpire to tell the official about the mix-up.
It must have been tempting for de Minaur to play on with the ball, which would have boosted his serving speed.
Players always search for the balls that have the least amount of fluff and degradation because of the way newer balls fly through the air quicker with better wind resistance.
De Minaur had been drawn to come up against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round — Their head-to-head record reads 11-1 in favour of Tsitsipas.
But the Greek’s surprise loss in the first round has cleared the path for de Minaur to make the quarterfinals for the first time at the Australian Open.
If he gets that far, the Aussie would face world No. 1 Jannik Sinner. The Italian has beaten de Mianur in each of their nine meetings.
It wasn’t such good news for 25th seed Alexei Popyrin, who lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 to France’s Corentin Moutet. The Aussie was battling a hamstring concern and wasn’t at his best.