As Alex de Minaur sat on the Wimbledon player’s balcony late on Saturday, the relaxed Australian looked a world removed from the player who left the All England Club bereft and bemused last year.
After enjoying an early afternoon hitting session on the main courts at Wimbledon, de Minaur completed an array of press duties before heading upstairs to the player lawn for a debrief.
Seated alongside girlfriend Katie Boulter and coaching consultant and good mate Matt Ried, among other team members, the 25-year-old was laughing and smiling in the afternoon sun.
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Life is good for de Minaur, despite a recent loss at the Queen’s Club, as he prepares for a Tuesday start to his Wimbledon campaign against compatriot and friend James Duckworth.
He has won two titles this year and, more importantly, de Minaur has broken into the top 10 while reaching the last eight at a grand slam for the first time in four years at Roland Garros.
A former boys finalist at Wimbledon, the Davis Cup star is enjoying his time on his favourite surface and is relaxed about the task ahead of him in his bid to make new ground in London.
But the world No.9, who has spent time on the links with Aussie mates over the past week, has a curious relationship with Wimbledon.
He adores the place, having been schooled in its importance to Australian tennis through champions including Lleyton Hewitt, and loves the surface, where his speed is a strength.
De Minaur enjoyed good experiences at SW19 in the infancy of his career, including a run to the third round and a date with Rafael Nadal on the fabled Centre Court as a teenager.
But the place where he most wants to succeed is one that has burnt him badly in recent editions, including a head scratcher in 2022 when he led Cristian Garin by two sets and held two match points in the 4th Rd, only to lose in a deciding super tiebreaker.
Arriving at Wimbledon last year in good form once again, having tested Carlos Alcaraz in a quality final at the Queen’s Club, de Minaur had the misfortune of landing Matteo Berrettini in the second round.
The powerful Italian fitted the classic definition of a dangerous floater as a finalist at Wimbledon in 2021.
Playing on Court 18, an outside feature court surrounded by vantage points to the side of Murray Mound, it looked as though Berrettini’s serving arm seemed to be peaking at the height of the new media centre, which has views back towards the London Eye and Big Ben about 11km away.
Boom. Berrettini blasted an ace. Thwack. Another forehand was fired past de Minaur. It was one-way traffic as the Aussie was belted out of another Wimbledon by Berrettini.
“This one will sit with me for a while. I’m not happy at all. It is a bad situation to be in. I’ll try not to dwell on it, but it won’t be easy,” de Minaur said.
QUICK HANDS, QUICKER FEET AND THE QUICKEST OF LEARNERS
Among the various strengths of de Minaur is that, while he remains a work in progress who has become a genuine topliner through gradual improvement, he is also a quick learner.
He has endured some tough lessons. Novak Djokovic knocked him around at the Aussie Open a couple of years ago and Berrettini is among those who have overpowered him.
But he has added strength to his frame and his legs, pace to his serve and pop to his forehand, which is now more dimensional than the flatter stroke it was even a year ago.
A month after the disappointment against Berrettini, the Aussie reached his first Masters series final when beaten by Jannik Sinner at the start of his surge in the Canadian Open.
De Minaur pushed Daniil Medvedev to the brink at the US Open, only to hit the wall first. He then led Australia to the Davis Cup Final, but again found the Italian star Sinner too strong.
At the Australian Open he went toe to toe with top Russian Andrey Rublev in the last 16 and then won a significant event in Acapulco in Mexico in February before the quality clay swing.
After winning his second grass court title in s’Hertogenbosch, he was an early casualty at the Queen’s Club but feels that may not have been a bad thing ahead of the next fortnight.
“I’m feeling great. I feel like it’s exactly what I needed, just a little bit of time to switch off,” he said.
“I’m very content with the way I’m playing and, in a way, it just gave me a bit of time to … take it easy and then come to Wimby with a lot of energy.
“I didn’t feel the need … to play any (exhibition) matches, just because I’ve played plenty of matches on the grass and I’m feeling comfortable. So I was able to (spend) a couple of weeks of just training, just ramping it up (and) getting ready to start here.”
Evident in the No. 9s evolution has been the increased power he has added to his game, with the speed of his first and second serve, in particular, enabling him to control more points.
But there has also been significant improvement in his forehand. It was evident to the naked eye during Roland Garros that he had added greater variety to the trajectory of the shot.
De Minaur is still capable of flattening through the ball, something that will assist him on grass, but he can now hit with greater topspin as well, which has enhanced its reliability.
He has increased his pace off the wing, adding about 4km/h this year to take it to an average of 117km/h, and is averaging more winners from his forehand than a year ago.
The shot is not the weapon that it is for leading contenders including Sinner and Alcaraz. But his improvement from that wing and also on his serve is assisting his rise up the rankings.
FROM MENTEE TO MENTOR
The eldest of four siblings, the Sydney-born de Minaur decided at the age of 12 to commit to a life of tennis after spending much of his primary school years back in Spain in Alicante.
Returning to Sydney, the right-hander would offer himself up as a hitting partner to peers several years older than him and had the fortune of learning from players like Duckworth.
The 32-year-old recalled hitting with de Minaur, who was then 15, during a brief back at Sydney’s Olympic Park a decade ago and is impressed by how far he has come.
“He just said to me, ‘I’d love to practise with you as much as you want. As long as you’re here, just let me know when you want to hit and I’ll hit with you’” Duckworth said.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this guy really wants it.’ And every session he turned out … and just tried his arse off. He was pretty skinny and light on at that stage and … his ball wasn’t sort of big (but) he was very mature for his age.”
Duckworth, who is ranked 78 after finding fitness again, was beaten by de Minaur in their only encounter in Atlanta two years ago and has tracked his development over the decade.
“(The) next time I saw him, he was the ‘orange boy’ for Davis Cup in September, 2016, and he’d already improved a lot by then,” he said.
“Just a year and a half later, he (had) put on a little bit more size and had just continued to build. I cannot remember the last time we practised, maybe it was last year some time, but we played once in Atlanta a couple of years ago and it was a big improvement.”
De Minaur, for his part, said his path to the top would have been far harder had guys like Duckworth and Thompson, among others, not been around to support and inspire him.
“I’ve been so incredibly fortunate of how all of the guys have … taken me in when I was really young. I mean all of them were so nice to me, so receptive,” he said.
“I’m this young kid who’s eager to learn and eager to improve and you know, (it was) not only the James Duckworths we’re talking about, but also the Milmans, Jordan Thompson, Sam Groth, all these guys just gave me the time of day, right, and allowed me to learn from them and improve.
“It’s been great to be able to improve with them. And I just think that’s probably the best way to describe the Aussie culture, right? We bring each other up. It’s pretty cool.”
THE STANDARD BEARER
Ask his compatriots about de Minaur and the chorus is universal.
He remains a humble, driven guy who works hard to get the best out of himself but also wants that for his mates, which is why he is driving their standards higher and higher.
Thompson, who is the Australian No. 2 and was a semifinalist at the Queen’s Club, was one of the hitting partners de Minaur sought out in his early teens but the roles have changed.
“Growing up, I was older than him and I was like his big brother,” he said.
“He always looked up to me and now I’m looking up to him. I’ve told him that. He is going incredibly well. I mean, he made the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and it’s his worst surface. It just goes to show how hard he works and how much he’s improved.”
Rinky Hijikata, another Sydneysider, will complete the box set of grand slam main draw appearances this week and said he, too, looked to the example set by the Demon.
“Obviously Demon’s our No.1 at the moment and he’s kind of paved the way for everyone and I feel like he’s such a good role model to have in that spot in Australian tennis,” he said.
“So I think everyone … wants to catch up to him and do their best to make a name for themselves. And I feel like he’s been huge and everyone (is) kind of growing in their belief.”
Alexei Popyrin won the Roland Garros boys title seven years ago and, similarly to de Minaur, spent a significant amount of his youth growing up and training in Spain.
One of three Australian men currently ranked inside the top 50, Popyrin defeated de Minaur in the Paris Masters a couple of years ago but was handled by him in Monte Carlo in May.
“I’ve known him since I was a little kid. I think the first time I met him was when I was eight years old,” Popyrin said.
“He’s comfortably in the top 10 with his level and I played him in Monte Carlo and I could really see why he is and it kind of gave me a big eye-opener to what I have to do to improve and try to get to his space.
“He’s got huge chances on grass. It is one of his favourite surfaces. He won s-Hertogenbosch quite comfortably there, so I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do.”
CAN THE DEMON ACTUALLY DELIVER?
Popyrin cannot wait to see what de Minaur can do. Australian tennis analyst Craig O’Shannessy rates de Minaur among the handful of title contenders. Veteran journalist Jon Wertheim has tipped him as a finalist. And UK bookmakers list him as the seventh favourite.
De Minaur first has to deal with the ‘Duck’, who has earned a spot as a lucky loser but performed well on grass in Germany prior to reaching the last round of Wimbledon qualifying.
Hubert Hurkacz, the world No. 7 who ended Roger Federer’s career at Wimbledon three years ago, shapes as a 4th Rd rival and seven-time champion Novak Djokovic is in his quarter of the draw and has declared himself fit for The Championships after knee surgery.
It is only 12 months since Berrettini served him off the court. But de Minaur is convinced he is a far superior player now and the results demonstrate this to be the case.
De Minaur lost his first 11 matches against top 10 rivals. He won six of his next 30. And he has won 13 of his last 30. The more he plays the best, the more balanced the ledger becomes.
“Ultimately it’s a process, right? But it helps a lot more if you get the validation of wins,” he said.
“I think in this sport, it’s cool to go out and play a top five player and have a tough match and get close (and) maybe lose in the third set. But it doesn’t really give you the same validation, not getting a win, as finally breaking through that barrier and then all of a sudden, once you do that, you know you can do it. (So) why not do it again? If I’ve done it once, why not do it twice, right?
“And then you put yourself in the position where even the other players, they are realising that ‘Geez, you know, he’s already beaten these types of players. He’s ready to go. He’s not going to give me an easy match’.
“And that just creates an aura, creates … something within the locker room that definitely helps you as a competitor.”