De Minaur stood three points away from a precarious two-set deficit before fighting back to clinch a spirited 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 6-3 win over a fatiguing Francesco Cerundolo on Saturday.
De Minaur has never won a grand slam match from two sets to love down and had to pull out all stops to avoid needing to in a desperate three-hour, 53-minute scrap on Rod Laver Arena.
Alex De Minaur was stretched to get past Francisco Cerundolo and into the fourth round. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)
The great escape vaulted the home hope into the last 16 for a fourth consecutive year and kept alive de Minaur's chances of becoming the first Australian man to win the Open since Mark Edmondson in 1976.
The 25-year-old also joins legends Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, John Newcombe, Tony Roche and his Davis Cup captain and mentor Lleyton Hewitt as only the sixth Australian man ever to make the fourth round at six consecutive majors.
But the narrative could have been very different.
From 5-3 up in the opening set, the world No.8 crumbled to find himself in a desperate dogfight.
First he served for the set at 5-4 but double-faulted to allow Cerundolo back on level terms.
Then he gifted the South American the set with another shocking double-fault on set point.
Francisco Cerundolo fist pumps after claiming a point against Alex de Minaur. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)
Off his game, de Minaur again gave up an early break in the second set before using a short timeout to regroup while a spectator was escorted from RLA after a medical episode.
The eighth seed sought advice from his courtside box, including Hewitt, and immediately lifted, almost breaking from 40-0 down on Cerundolo's serve.
De Minaur was again in trouble after being unable to break back and was staring down the barrel of a two-set deficit serving at 5-6, 15-30.
But he rallied to take the set in a tiebreaker and urged the crowd to will him to victory.
He sure needed them to.
Despite the 31st-seeded Cerundolo needing treatment for a quad strain early in the third set, de Minaur couldn't shake the Argentine.
But he finally prevailed when Cerundolo double-faulted on match point to send de Minaur through to a fourth-round meeting with unseeded American Alex Michelsen on Monday.
26°C