Alex de Minaur has been caught flipping the bird at tennis fans as a whirlwind 24 hours came to an end in stunning fashion.
A day after becoming the first Australian to defeat Rafael Nadal on clay, the Aussie No.1 was himself swept out of the Barcelona Open in straight sets.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Alex de Minaur’s costly moments in tough defeat.
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Arthur Fils won 7-5 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals but the French teenager seemingly wasn’t de Minaur’s only opponent on the day.
De Minaur was pictured raising his middle finger towards Fils’ fans during the match.
The boisterous scenes generally appeared similar to what Aussie supporters have delivered for locals at the Australian Open, but de Minaur looked to have been put off in some way by the Barcelona crowd.
The world No.11 led the first set 5-3 and was then two points away from wrapping it up, yet he was undone quickly and soon had good reason to be frustrated.
He committed a crucial double fault to be broken for 5-5 and then another to lose the set.
The pro-Fils members of the crowd celebrated loudly on both occasions though it is unclear if any words were directed at de Minaur during the match.
Such was the turnaround that Fils claimed an astonishing seven games in a row across the end of the first and start of the second sets.
De Minaur was overpowered, and the drop shots that proved too much for Nadal were being punished by the blistering speed of Fils.
The Aussie warded off defeat when he broke back for 2-5 — after having lost nine of the previous 10 games — and saved a match point.
But his French opponent would not be denied as he wrapped up victory in an hour and 35 minutes.
De Minaur showed no signs of frustrations towards Fils as he congratulated the world No.36 and offered words of encouragement at the net.
Meanwhile, it was also a chastening day for Aussie No.2 Jordan Thompson.
His bid to make the quarter-finals was ruthlessly ended by French Open finalist Casper Ruud’s 6-1 6-4 victory.
Thompson struggled with blisters to his racquet hand early on as he attempted vainly to cope with clean hitting of Ruud, who raced into a 5-0 lead.
The second set became more of a fight but Ruud broke Thompson once and that proved enough to record a tour-best 26th win of the calendar year.
– with AAP