Australian with Uruguayan father and Spanish mother, Alex De Minaur Now will be a real test of fire in the re-emergence of Rafael Nadal as he himself admitted that he was in the “best” moment of his career. Champion in Acapulco and finalist in Rotterdam, De Miñaur reached the best ranking of his life (9th) in February, now he is in 11th place and looks ready to take greater heights.
He was at his best moment?
Yes, at the level of tennis I am at my best moment. This year is being my best year and I am very eager and excited to continue improving because I still have the level to continue improving.
What changed to make this leap?
My whole career has been a gradual, step-by-step thing. I’ve never had a physique that could give me free serve points or groundstrokes, so it’s always a daily improvement. Every year I’ve improved my serve and my strokes a little bit, but I’ve also gotten stronger. All this helped me, but what changed this year was the mentality of being more aggressive. I will always use my legs which help me run through everything, but the only way to beat the best is to play them one by one and be aggressive.
You are a ‘road runner’, one of the fastest tennis players. Have you ever had your best time in the 100 meters?
No, but I think I’m just fast on the track. If we start doing tests and things like that, I don’t think it’s going to be as fast as everybody thinks. It’s a combination of my reading the game well and my quick first step, which helps me be more explosive. There will be many players who are faster than me, but on the court I move well and this is something that always helps me.
How do you approach matches against players like Alcaraz, Djokovic or Nadal who hit winners with ease?
In the end try to beat them too. Before I found myself at a lower level and I didn’t see many options because they had more power than me, more energy, more ‘winners’, but now, thanks to the improvement in many aspects of my game , I see myself as equal, I don’t see why I can’t throw the ‘winners’ too. This is the result of a lot of work and constant improvement of my shots. This year, I think I showed that I can play one-on-one against anybody.
You belong to that generation embedded between the ‘Big Three’ and the emergence of Alcaraz and Sinner. Do you feel that this situation closes the doors of the Grand Slam for you?
No, now I see a huge door of opportunities. In the past I found it quite difficult because if you want to win a Grand Slam sooner or later you have to beat Nadal, Federer or Djokovic, but now why can’t I be among the best in the world? That’s the plan, it’s something that I’m very excited about because I see a great opportunity to continue to develop and be among the four or five that fight for the big tournaments.
Rafa Nadal is surely his first rival in this Godó.
Another chance, I really want to face this match, in the end you want to play with the best in the world. I have played with Rafa a few times, but not on clay. I will give everything and see what level I am to compete with someone like Rafa on the ground.
What legacy do you think Rafa Nadal will leave behind when he retires?
I think it’s a legacy that’s already there. All players know Rafa’s mentality, drive, fight and attitude. I’ve seen him from a very young age and it’s something about him that I’ve always admired. That was his legacy, the attitude, the fight and the war that he taught in every game. He will become one of the legends of the sport and holds a record that no one will touch, in fact, no one will come close to it: his 14 Roland Garros titles.
And what do you think of the appearance of Carlos Alcaraz?
Carlos is doing everything right, an incredible career at such a young age. It’s very difficult to achieve everything that Rafa has done, because Rafa is a unique person, but Carlos will have his own career. I am sure he will achieve much, as he has done. I hope to play a lot of games against him, and they will be important games, hopefully tournament finals.
If you could choose one, which Alcaraz weapon would you want for yourself?
He has the ability to create a lot of stress for his opponents because he has a lot of different shots, a lot of variety, he can pick you up at first, he can play you with a lot of weight, a strong forehand or a sudden drop. the shot comes to you. He has a lot of ways to play and he’s still figuring out exactly what his best way to play is, but there are times when he can’t touch his top level, one of the highest levels there is on the circuit right now.
In February you won the title in Acapulco and the next day you flew to San Diego to watch live the final played and won by your girlfriend Katie Boulter.
It was a perfect week. You never know when you’re going to play well and it just so happened that we both won the same week. We joked in those days, I told him that if I won the tournament, I would fly and go to the final with him. He said it was impossible for me to reach the final, that it would be very difficult, but days passed, I won and so did he. In the end, I just happened to win the tournament, catch a flight at seven in the morning and arrive just in time to see the final. She won her first WTA 500 tournament, the biggest of her career. It’s been an incredible week. From there we both drove to Indian Wells, so it was one of the best weeks of my life.
Source: La Verdad
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