Name: Alex De Minaur
Nationality: Australian
Age: 21
Similar playing style to: Kei Nishikori
Alex De Minaur is the quickest player on tour, there I said it. I’d watched a lot of his matches previously, but during my research for writing this article, I’ve realised just how quick he is around the court. Frightening. The ground he makes up and quality of shot at the end of the run, is quite incredible. Only Novak Djokovic can match his speed and defence.
It got me thinking about potential match-ups for the future. Imagine when Stefanos Tsitsipas, Danil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and De Minaur are all in their prime? We are going to be treated to some absolute classics. Stylistically, the match-ups are perfect. Medvedev and Tsitisipas in particular, like to dictate rallies with power and precision, both have huge serves; while De Minaur is a fantastic counter-puncher and thrives against pace on the ball. An ideal opponent for the Australian is someone who looks to hit winner after winner, like Medvedev does. De Minaur will back his speed and defence against anyone, and fancy himself to force unforced errors galore. If Alex can generate more ball speed with his own ground-strokes overtime, we could be on to a real star.
Ironically, it was Alex’s hometown event in Sydney, 2018, when he really broke through and people started to take notice. He received a ‘special exempt’ spot in the main draw of the Sydney event. The then 19-year-old defeated Fernando Verdasco, Damir Dzumhur, Feliciano Lopez and Benoit Paire to reach his first ATP final. A clash with Medvedev awaited, I think they’ll be fighting it out in finals on quite a few occasions down the line. 1-0 Medvedev. Despite winning the opening set, De Minaur lost in three sets. What a match, though. Medvedev blasting forehands from side to side, De Minaur running them down – returning with craft and deft touches. A sign of things to come. This guy loves playing in Australia. He was PUMPED.
After receving tough draws in grand slams, De Minaur headed to America for the hard-court season. He was involved in one of the matches of the season. Washington, semi-final vs Alexander Rublev. De Minaur was down four match points, 6-2 in the second set tie-break, somehow the Aussie produced a spell of just ridiculous tennis to win it 8-6 and force a decider. Of course he won the decider, 6-4. I felt that win was the making of De Minaur. In any sport, one win can change the outcome of your year. The way he battled back, with energy, emotion and quality tennis was a joy to watch. Although he lost to Zverev in the final, he added his name to the ‘NxtGen’ group and everybody started to understand just how good this young Aussie was.
Sydney proved to be a happy-hunting ground again in 2019. De Minaur reached another ATP final, this time against Andreas Seppi. Sorry Andreas, but I think every neutral fan in the world wanted De Minaur to win that one. It just meant everything to him, to watch him win a major title on home soil was brilliant, and fully deserving. Alex won the final in straight-sets, it was his time, his trophy, in the memory bank forever.
After suffering a groin injury which ruled him out for two months, the explosive Australian came back with a bang in Atlanta. De Minaur played arguably the best tennis of his career, not facing a single break point in four matches and winning 116 out of 123 points on serve. That was not a typo. Big-serving American Taylor Fritz awaited in the final, although Fritz made a fight of it, De Minaur was just playing at an outrageous, unplayable level and won his second ATP title with a 6-3, 7-6 victory.
Later that year, De Minaur went onto secure his best result at a grand slam, by reaching the fourth round of the US Open before losing to Grigor Dimitriv. Roger Federer defeated him at The Swiss Indoors final. As a result of his fantastic form, De Minaur reached a career-high ranking of 18.
So, we are all excited by his speed, agility and ability to hit winners from impossible positions. His fighting spirit and steely attitude will take him a long way in his career, it matches his style of tennis, to never give up. For De Minaur, it’s vital he works on his second serve and net-play, both are vulnerable and top players will expolit that. Overall, what an exciting player. A guy that lives to play tennis. He gives absolutely everything out on court, will continue to lift titles, improve with experience and be fighting it out for grand slams in years to come.
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