One game away, then five games gone
Alex de Minaur led 7-5, 5-1 and stood a single game from the last 16 in Cincinnati. Then the rain returned, the players left the court, and a match he had under control became something else entirely.
Arthur Fery won five games in a row after the resumption. He broke the Australian twice and moved 6-5 ahead, a sequence that would have forced a deciding set had de Minaur not steadied at the one moment he could not afford to slip. The fifth seed held, pushed it to a tie-break and took it 7-3 for a 7-5, 7-6(3) win.
Four separate stoppages shaped the match: before the players walked on, after the first game, at the end of the first set, and again at 5-1 in the second. Momentum in tennis is usually a story told afterwards. On Monday it came with timestamps.
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Fery keeps proving July was not a fluke
The Briton reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in July, a run that changed how the tour reads his name. He is 24. Losing in straight sets to the fifth seed after leading late in the second set is not the kind of defeat that undoes any of it.
Earlier on Monday he was named in Great Britain’s Davis Cup squad for next month’s home qualifying tie against Ecuador, alongside Cameron Norrie and the doubles pair of Henry Patten and Lloyd Glasspool. Fery already has a Davis Cup win to his name, beating Olaf Pieczkowski in straight sets against Poland in September 2025. A fifth squad place remains open, and Jack Draper could take it if he gets his body back after an injury-hit year.
Fils or Lehecka comes next
The 27-year-old de Minaur faces the winner of Arthur Fils against Jiri Lehecka for a place in the quarter-finals. Neither is an easy read. Both hit early and hard, which is the profile that tends to ask the most awkward questions of de Minaur’s defensive game on a quick hard court.
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