The roaring fist pump from Alex De Minaur as he scrambled to pass a stranded Jurgen Melzer had 2002 Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt written all over it.
Where both lack the ability to bludgeon the ball, theirs is a game built on court nous, foot speed and a relentless ingrained determination.
It is easy to see why the former Australian great has taken his 18-year-old countryman under his wing.
In the same never-say-die vein as Hewitt, the 69kg De Minaur showed an unwavering resolve to take down former world No.8 Melzer 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of Wimbledon Qualifying on Monday. It was a match in which he initially looked to be well out of the hunt.
“That first set I really got hit off the court. He was playing too good,” De Minaur said.
“He was hitting pretty much winners off everything so I just tried to keep my calm head and I was telling myself that I was going to get opportunities to break him and I just had to try keep holding my serve.”
As a former junior world No.2, it has been a big 12 months for De Minaur. The teenager was a runner-up in last year’s Boys’ Singles final at the All England Club. Six months later he was making his Grand Slam debut at home where he produced a gutsy five-set win over Melzer’s younger brother Gerald in the Australian Open first round.
“I think it was a big stepping stone and since then, that result had me gain some confidence to believe in myself a little bit more,” De Minaur said.
“I know that I’ve got the level. It’s just about rocking up that day and producing it.”
They are words with a very Hewitt ring to them. It’s an attitude many a coach would be pleased to hear their charge channel given the Australian former world No.1’s renowned fight in his heyday.
Sometimes they’ll be better than you, they’re going to play a better match but if you just keep giving yourself chances and keep fighting, even if the match doesn’t go your way, you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. You’ve left it all out on court.
“Obviously Lleyton has been helping me a lot and is great to see him out there on court and just helping me get through that as well as my coach Adolfo Gutierrez,” De Minaur said.
Watching from the sidelines, Hewitt’s unbridled passion for competition was never far from sight. He was fist-pumping in De Minaur’s direction when the teenager staved off break points early in the third set before Melzer called an injury timeout to have his left forearm restrapped having held for 3-2.
De Minaur reeled off the last four games of the match at the resumption of play, breaking to seal the result on a double fault from the Austrian to book a showdown with Japan’s Tatsuma Ito.
“I was trying to just keep that intensity the whole match and trying to be on top there and just getting fired up and you know, having a little bit of the Hewitt mentality,” De Minaur said. “It paid off because even though I couldn’t convert a lot of break points, I converted two and that’s all I needed.”
Two years ago, Melzer deemed an opening-round Wimbledon qualifying win over brother Gerald as the worst moment in his tennis career.
Despite Jurgen’s defeat on Monday, there was some silver lining for the family with Gerald easily disposing of Argentinian Federico Coria 6-3, 6-0.
In the battle of younger brothers Gerald saw off former Roland-Garros runner-up Guillermo Coria’s younger sibling to set a second-round qualifying clash with Ti Chen.
A determined De Minaur ensured it would be a day of mixed fortunes once more for the Melzers at Roehampton.
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