Ash Barty and Alex de Minaur get caught up in French Open drama

•  Aussie tennis legend  Renee Stubbs calls out oversight at Roland Garros
•  De Minaur said to be first Aussie to make French Open last-eight since 2004
•  Statistic mistakenly overlooked Australians Ash Barty and Sam Stosur

An Australian tennis legend has called out international broadcaster Tennis Channel after Alex de Minaur stormed into the quarter-finals of the French Open earlier in the week.

The Sydneysider with the big heart and electric speed came from a set down on Monday to defeat the former US Open champ Medvedev 4-6 6-2 6-1 6-3 to make it to just his second quarter-final in a grand slam.

‘Demon’ also became the first Aussie male player to make the last-eight at the French since his idol, mentor and Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt in 2004.

The Tennis Channel showed a graphic during his on court interview saying De Minaur was first Australian into the quarters since Hewitt, failing to note that’s just in men’s tennis – completely overlooking female greats from Australia.

And that’s where former Aussie doubles champion Renee Stubbs stepped in to let the tennis broadcaster know it made a mistake.

‘HUGE congrats to @alexdeminaur so happy for you mate,’ Stubbs wrote on X.

‘BUT @TennisChannel Demon is the first Aussie MALE since Hewitt. If u recall

@bambamsam30 did this a whole lot of times after 2004. Like finals, semis etc. So can we please get those graphics right. Thanks.

‘Oh and @ashbarty won the whole thing!’

Meanwhile, the stars may be aligning for De Minaur in Paris with everything falling into place to hand the Australian potentially a dream opportunity at the French Open.

An exhausting early-hours, eve-of-match finish for his quarter-final opponent Alexander Zverev on Tuesday, then the bombshell of champion Novak Djokovic’s injury withdrawal, has opened up a tantalising path for de Minaur not just to a maiden semi-final, but even to the final itself.

And with the great Djokovic, a potentially unassailable semi-final hurdle, out of the picture, de Minaur knows his last-four opponent would be Casper Ruud, a player he’s beaten twice and never lost to, should he defeat Zverev in a match that’s now been promoted to Wednesday’s prime time night spot on Court Philippe Chatrier. 

Already assured of returning to an equal-career-high No.9 in the world, de Minaur will climb to at least eighth in the rankings with a victory over Zverev and could finish the French Open as high as No.6 if he wins the tournament.