Local hope Alex de Minaur is assured he can match it with the massive boys on the Australian Open after a breakthrough win over Rafael Nadal.
De Minaur’s triumph in three units over the reigning Open champion finally week’s United Cup was the primary time he had crushed a participant ranked within the high two.
The 23-year-old is assured he can kick on from his victory over the world No.2 as he makes an attempt to raised his fourth-round end result from final yr.
“It was a great win, one that gave me a lot of confidence,” de Minaur informed reporters on Monday.
“One of those kind of milestone moments where you sort of achieve and unlock and I’m feeling great about where my level is right now.
“Hopefully I can put myself in the identical place to play these high-quality matches, top-level guys, and actually take it to them.”
De Minaur is feeling more primed physically and mentally than ever, after making the final 16 at Melbourne Park and Wimbledon last year.
“Something that I’ve carried out my complete profession is simply deal with attempting to maintain enhancing and yearly is a brand new probability of that,” he mentioned.
“So yearly I felt higher than the yr earlier than and that is one other probability for me, one other alternative to play in my residence slam and I can let you know: I’m gonna take pleasure in each second of it.”
De Minaur will play at Kooyong this week, starting against 2020 Open finalist Dominic Thiem on Tuesday, while also fine-tuning at Melbourne Park.
“For me this week, it is all about getting quite a lot of time on the match courts,” the world No.24 mentioned.
“There’s quite a lot of high-level gamers right here so that you’re attempting to get as many high quality practises as you may, get your eye in, put within the hours.
“But at the same time you want to make sure you taper off at the end of the week so you start the week off fresh.”
