Fresh from a career-best win over World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, home favorite Alex de Minaur was grilled by a journalist with a question about a marriage proposal.
On Wednesday, De Minaur became the first Australian to beat a reigning World No. 1 on home turf since 1996. Despite a lackluster effort against Djokovic at last year's Australian Open, the man nicknamed "Demon" gave the home fans something to cheer about this time at the United Cup.
A composed performance by de Minaur in Perth, aided by the Serb's injury woes, gave Australia a foothold in the tie, which Ajla Tomljanovic eventually sealed. The host nation will play Saturday's semifinal against Germany in Syndey.
While much of post-match talk was about de Minaur earning the finest win of his career, one curious journalist asked the Aussie whether he was contemplating proposing to his girlfriend Katie Boulter - the top-ranked British woman in the WTA standings - after the 2024 Australian Open.
For context, the said journalist was merely trying to remind de Minaur of how his idol Lleyton Hewitt was engaged to his then-girlfriend Rebecca Cartwright after losing the 2005 Australian Open to Marat Safin.
"Jeez. Putting me on the spot here. Yeah, it's not on the cards just yet. Not ruling it out. But yeah, for the time being, I'm going to try and focus on playing tennis, and then we'll think about the off-court activities."
Unsatisfied with the response, the journalist pushed the button one more time and tested de Minaur's patience about potentially doing it should he win the Australian Open, to which the 24-year-old caved in and stated he would consider it as it wouldn't be a "bad way" to celebrate the win.
"Jeez (smiling). Wouldn't be a bad way to celebrate it, let's just say that."
Several tennis fans did not take this question kindly despite de Minaur's polite handling of it. The unnamed journalist became a topic of discussion on Reddit. One user wrote, "This is an unprofessional question to put to someone."
Another was clearly unhappy with how a reporter would be so committed to delving into someone's private life, writing, "Very unprofessional - puts Alex in a pretty awkward position. He’s not in a press conference to be put on the spot about his private life."
"Alex's "jeez" reactions to this journalist's question are gold; very inappropriate to ask this," one user declared. And another infuriated fan wrote, "Who asked this? They should be banned from interviewing players. Players aren't your typical C-List TMZ targets to be putting them in this spot."
Another user was unsurprised to hear this question as it is becoming a norm for journalists to ask completely unrelated questions about the match itself, "Is it really a tennis presser if someone doesn’t ask a ridiculously invasive and completely irrelevant question?"
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