Borrowing a web page from the playbook of four-time champion Andre Agassi, Alex de Minaur will spend Christmas Day pounding the pavement in pursuit of Australian Open glory.
Believing it is excessive time for he or Nick Kyrgios to bust the 47-year males’s house title hoodoo in Melbourne, de Minaur deliberate to hit the apply courts 4 days out from Australia’s United Cup opener towards Great Britain on December 29-30.
Agassi famously used to run up and down the mountains outdoors Las Vegas on Christmas Day till he threw up.
But whereas that was within the cool of winter, de Minaur is upping the ante within the Sydney summer time warmth after flying in from his Spanish base of Alicante.
“Back on the courts I grew up on,” mentioned the world No.24.
“Every year I normally tend to spend Christmas in Oz. Normally, more often than that, on the tennis court just getting extra reps in and this year I will be again.
“As they are saying, no relaxation for the depraved. There’s nothing higher than getting some good old style beneficial properties.”
Not content with last-16 appearances at Melbourne Park and Wimbledon this year, the 2020 US Open quarter-finalist craves a deep, deep run at his home slam.
The 23-year-old’s victory over former world No.1 Daniil Medvedev at the Paris Masters in November was a timely confidence booster entering the Australian summer.
“I feel I’m very shut. My stage’s there. It’s only a little bit of self-belief that should occur for me to essentially cement myself proper there,” de Minaur mentioned.
“So I’m going to do, as at all times, every little thing in my energy and hopefully I can begin off the 12 months with run on the AO.
“I want to get high in the rankings. My whole career has been a lot of going step by step so the next step is to really push for the top 15, top 10.
“That’s what my actual targets are.”
Kyrgios will launch Australia’s United Cup campaign against British No.1 Cameron Norrie, the world No.14, in Sydney on Thursday night, before Zoe Hives plays Katie Swan in the first women’s rubber.
The best-of-five-match tie resumes at Ken Rosewall Arena on Friday night, with Aussie women’s No.1 Ajla Tomljanovic playing Harriet Dart and de Minaur facing world No.27 Dan Evans in a testing start to the new season.
If all locked up, a mixed doubles rubber will decide the tie.
Australia then take on the Rafael Nadal-led Spanish outfit on January 2-3.
That mouth-watering match-up will characteristic Kyrgios towards Nadal, de Minaur towards Pablo Carreno Busta and Tomljanovic towards Paula Badosa.
