ALEX DE MINAUR: AUSSIE WALKING TALL IN LAVER CUP RETURN

Maybe it’s because he always seems to be facing one towering 6-foot-5 Goliath or another. Or maybe it’s because he’s never been the most demonstrative guy on the court, someone who prefers to leave the histrionics to others. But for a player who’s been a Top-10 mainstay on the ATP Tour for the better part of two years, who’s on the verge of the 300-win mark, who’s regularly playing his way into the second week at the sport’s biggest events, Alex de Minaur sure gets overlooked.

“I feel like I’ve been under the radar my whole career,” said de Minaur earlier this month at the US Open, where the Australian reached the quarterfinals for a third time.

De Minaur, returning to the Laver Cup fold for the first time since his 2022 debut at London’s O2 Arena, is more than relieved to be healthy and once again summoning his best level. Last year, the Sydneysider suffered a serious physical setback. Set to play the most high-profile match of his career, a coveted Wimbledon quarterfinal against seven-time champion Novak Djokovic, he was forced to pull out with an injury, one he suffered, cruelly, in the last three points of his fourth-round dismissal of Frenchman Arthur Fils.

What was initially thought to be a hip injury turned out to be a rare and painful groin tear. Regardless of the diagnosis, de Minaur could no longer summon the all-court arsenal that had made the him so effective.

“You just don’t know when the light at the end of the tunnel is going to come.” — Alex De Minaur

“Not a lot of people know how close I was to going under the knife and basically giving up on the season,” he confided. “You just don’t know when the light at the end of the tunnel is going to come.”

“I’ve always been told that the reason why I am where I am is because of my movement and my speed. That’s one of my biggest attributes, no doubt,” he continued. “When that was taken away from me, there was a lot of serious doubt of how I was going to win tennis matches. It’s not like I’m getting amazing free points on serve, or I’m hitting cold winners out of any spot on the court.”

The 26-year-old Aussie, engaged to longtime girlfriend and WTA Tour standout Katie Boulter, put that injury behind him and kicked off 2025 in peak form. After a career-best quarterfinal showing on home turf at the Australian Open, he reached an ATP 500 final in Rotterdam (l. to Team Europe foe Carlos Alcaraz, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2). He would get that matchup with Djokovic at Wimbledon after all, this time in the Round of 16, pushing the all-time Slam leader to four sets, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. He then showed some mettle in Washington, saving three championship points against Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(3), for the 10th tour-level title of his career.

“Alex has improved his game tremendously in the last couple years. He’s playing the tennis of his life,” said Djokovic this summer. “He’s definitely knocking on the door of the final stages of Grand Slams. He’s gotten to the quarters several times. He’s so quick, a complete player, all around.”

After an elite-eight finish at Flushing Meadows, where he was stopped by Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5, 7-6(4), a loss he said left him “seeing red”, he’s poised for his Laver Cup return. It presents a chance to set things straight, to once again prove himself against those Goliaths (think: 6-foot-5 Jakub Mensik, 6-foot-6 Alexander Zverev), something he’s grown accustomed to over the years.

“My whole career, I was the small guy,” said the 6-foot de Minaur, currently No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings. “I was the guy that wasn’t strong, that had to find lots of different ways to win tennis matches and really had to kind of get the most out of myself tactically,” he said. “When I walked out on court and I played these matches as a junior, I was looking at different ways to beat these bigger, taller, stronger guys.”

Click here to read article