What you see is what you get from the relentless Alex de Minaur, and early returns indicate that we’ll be seeing a lot of him
“There’s a lot of stuff that happens off the court,” says Alex de Minaur, “but I think at the end of the day, what I really want is to be that boring guy that lets his tennis do the talking, you know?”
With caustic Nick Kyrgios and headline-generating Bernard Tomic as compatriots, it doesn’t take much for de Minaur to be considered “boring” in Australian tennis circles. But as the 20-year-old says, the label suits him just fine—and it’s working. The “boring” guy from Down Under happens to be one of his country’s best. As of mid-April, de Minaur found himself on the verge of cracking the Top 20 and leading the pack as his nation’s No. 1.
“It’s really just about putting in the hard yards and training hard,” de Minaur, all of 152 pounds, recently told Tennis Channel.
“I just want to constantly keep getting better. As long as I can keep improving each day, I’m a strong believer that the results will show.”
Ranked outside the Top 200 at the start of 2018, de Minaur has quickly established himself as one of the tour’s top young stars, with a foundation based on a stellar work ethic, lightning-fast footspeed, and sky-high intensity. His toolkit recalls that of another undersized Australian, Lleyton Hewitt, who just so happens to mentor the Sydney native.
This story is from the July/August 2019 edition of Tennis.
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This story is from the July/August 2019 edition of Tennis.
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