A buoyant Alex de Minaur will head to Wimbledon as Australia’s main male hope and adamant he can beat anybody on grass after a Queen‘s Club charge which ended with defeat in the final to incoming world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz.
With last year’s finalist Nick Kyrgios beneath a critical damage cloud, and having performed only one match since final October, de Minaur booked a top-16 seeding at Wimbledon regardless of the 6-4 6-4 loss to t Alcaraz in Sunday‘s final.
The grass surface is a comfortable one for de Minaur who said he would be straight in to Wimbledon preparation on Monday to keep the momentum going from his run at the Queens’s Club
“Overall, a great week, feeling confident, now on to Wimby,” he mentioned after the loss.
“The positive for the week for me has been my mentality, my mindset, how calm I have been on the court and how I have backed myself at every stage. When I‘m in that kind of mindset and attitude, I can beat anyone.
“Even if things don‘t go my way, I’m content because I know I left it all out there and I try to play the way that I want to play. That’s a big positive for me coming into Wimbledon.
“Any time I step out on a grass court, I‘m very confident. It’s a part of the year I really enjoy. I think it suits my game really well. I can find a lot of my opponents’ weaknesses and exploit them.”
His constructive run has put de Minaur, theoretically at the very least, in a greater place to progress to the second spherical at Wimbledon given his seeding.
“In principle, you may get a little bit bit extra protected together with your seeding, however you possibly can play anybody first spherical and it‘s no secret,” said de Minaur, who was 15th seed in 2021 but still got beaten in the first round after being drawn with the unseeded Sebastian Korda.
“There‘s a lot of very dangerous players that are unseeded, and that can be very tricky,” said de Minaur.
“But a top-16 seeding is a good spot to be in. Hopefully, I can have a good Wimbledon, and reach a career high, but I‘m taking it very, very slowly.”
The Australian opted out of this week’s Eastbourne occasion, however will journey to the south-coast seaside venue for pre-Wimbledon apply, to additionally spend a while along with his girlfriend, British No.1 Katie Boulter.
“I‘ll be taking a couple of days off, for starters, and then probably start hitting back on maybe Wednesday,” he mentioned.
“It’s time to kind of rest the mind, enjoy myself, maybe play a little bit of golf and get ready for hopefully a good run at Wimbledon.”
Source: www.news.com.au
