Home favourite shares how his plans to beat the big guns by being more aggressive and feelings on being a leader of Australian tennis
It was at Wimbledon last summer that Alex de Minaur got his first real taste of stardom, when he found himself centre of attention alongside his girlfriend, the British No 1, Katie Boulter. Having gone under the radar for much of his career, the 24-year-old was understandably bemused as the pair’s every move was captured by the snap of a camera.
“It was definitely odd,” De Minaur says on the eve of the Australian Open, where he is his country’s leading hope of success in an event that last had an Australian man win the title in 1976. “It was my first time ever being followed by paparazzi. That’s something I wasn’t expecting, to the point that they found out where we were staying, and they were waiting for us the following morning. That, for me, was incredible to experience, it is something I never thought was possible. And that’s all because of Katie.”