Alex de Minaur[1] (/dəmɪˈnɔːr/də mih-NOR;[2]Spanish: Álex de Miñaur,[3]pronounced[ˈaleɡzðemiˈɲauɾ];[a] born 17 February 1999) is an Australian tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of 31 achieved in October 2018. He is currently the second youngest player ranked in the top 100[4] and the highest ranked Australian male player in singles.[5]
Personal life
de Minaur was born in Sydney to a Spanish mother and a Uruguayan father. de Minaur has three younger siblings (Dani, Cristina and Sara).[6] He spent the first five years of his life in Australia before locating to Alicante, Spain. de Minaur returned to Australia in 2012 and his parents returned to Spain in 2016. de Minaur spends his time between Sydney and Alicante, having stated that he has always felt a strong bond with Australia even though he has lived most of his life in Spain. In 2017, he told the Sydney Morning Herald "I used to represent Spain but I always felt I was Australian. As soon as we moved back here again that was the first thing I wanted to do — play for Australia."[7]
de Minaur made his professional debut in July 2015 at the Spain F22, reaching the quarterfinals. He was given a wildcard into the qualifying rounds of the 2016 Australian Open, but lost in round one. de Minaur them spent the majority of the 2016 season playing on the ITF circuit in Spain, reaching two finals. He made his first ATP Challenger Tour final in Eckental, Germany after qualifying.
2017: Grand Slam debut
de Minaur commenced the year at the Brisbane International, where he defeated Mikhail Kukushkin and Frances Tiafoe in qualifying to reach his first ATP main draw. He lost in the first round to Mischa Zverev. The following week he received a wildcard into the Apia International Sydney where he defeated world number 46 Benoît Paire to claim his first Tour-level win. In the second round, he retired after the first set against Andrey Kuznetsov. de Minaur made his Grand Slam debut at the 2017 Australian Open after receiving a wildcard. He faced Gerald Melzer in the first round and won in five sets after saving a match point in the fourth set.[9] He lost to Sam Querrey in round 2. In February, de Minaur reached round 2 of the Launceston Challenger, defeating the number 1 seed Go Soeda in round 1. In March, de Minaur lost in the final round of qualifying for Indian Wells, before returning to the Challenger circuit.
In May, de Minaur made his French Open debut after being awarded a wildcard. He lost the opening round to Robin Haase in straight sets.[10] In June, de Minaur lost in the first round of Nottingham and Ilkley Challengers and the second round of Wimbledon qualifying. In July, de Minaur won the Portugal F11 Futures and reached the final of the Castilla y León Challenger. de Minaur was awarded a wildcard into the 2017 US Open, losing in round one to Dominic Thiem. From September to November, de Minaur played a number of Challenger events in Europe, reaching two quarterfinals.
de Minaur commenced the year at the Brisbane International after receiving a wildcard into the main draw.[12] He defeated AmericanSteve Johnson in straight sets, before scoring the biggest win of his career to date by beating world number 24 Milos Raonic in straight sets.[13] He then defeated qualifier Michael Mmoh in the quarterfinals before losing to Ryan Harrison in the semifinals.[14] de Minaur is the lowest ranked player and the youngest to reach the semifinals of the men's draw in the Brisbane International's 10-year history.[15] de Minaur received a special exempt spot in the main draw of the Sydney event, where he consecutively eliminated Fernando Verdasco, Damir Džumhur and Feliciano López to reach his second ATP Tour semifinal, a week after he reached his first in Brisbane. de Minaur became the youngest player to play in two consecutive ATP semifinals since Rafael Nadal in 2005.[16] He beat Frenchman Benoît Paire in the semifinals to meet Daniil Medvedev in the final.[17] de Minaur lost the final in three sets, having won the opener.[18] At the 2018 Australian Open, de Minaur lost in the first round to Tomáš Berdych, but took a set off of the 19th seed. In March, after having previously made his Davis Cup debut, de Minaur lost in the second round of Indian Wells to eventual champion Juan Martín del Potro before qualifying for and losing in the first round of Miami. In April, de Minaur reached his third Challenger final at the 2018 JC Ferrero Challenger Open.
In Washington, he defeated Vasek Pospisil, 11th seed Steve Johnson, 8th seed and Australian Open semifinalist Chung Hyeon and received a walkover over Andy Murray to reach the semifinals where he faced Andrey Rublev. de Minaur saved four match points while down 2–6 in the second set tiebreak, winning six points in a row to win it 8–6. He then won the final set 6–4 to reach his first ATP 500 final against Alexander Zverev, in which he went down 4–6, 2–6. This run saw him enter the top 50 for the first time.
de Minaur made his Davis Cup debut for Australia in February 2018, at the age of 18. He faced then world number 5 Alexander Zverev from Germany in the opening rubber and fell just short of a spectacular upset, losing in a fifth-set tiebreaker after leading 3–0, 40–Ad. in the decider.[22]
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Australia
Daniil Medvedev
Alexander Zverev
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Steven Diez
Jaume Munar
Steve Darcis
Frederico Ferreira Silva
Jérémy Chardy
Dan Evans
Akira Santillan
Ramkumar Ramanathan
Lukáš Klein
Patrik Rikl
