US OPEN

August 30, 2025

Alex De Minaur

Press Conference

A. de MINAUR/D. Altmaier

6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 2-0 [Ret.]

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You have made the round of 16 in eight of the last nine majors, and the only players who can say that are Carlos, Jannik, Novak, and with a win tonight, Zverev. I know you said, you like to say you just want to put your head down and let the tennis do the talking, but that stat does a lot of talking. What are you most proud of when hearing a stat like that?

ALEX de MINAUR: Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is my loss at French Open, that one still haunts me. But no, obviously, it's the results doing the talking, right? It's a great stat to have. It shows my consistency, myself, what I pride myself in is showing up every single day.

You know, I can have some good days or bad days on the tennis court, but ultimately I'm still going to go out there and compete and fight till the very last point.

Yeah, I mean, I'm very happy with that stat, and now it's about taking it to the next level. You know, breaking some new barriers. That's the goal.

Q. I'm assuming hard courts, you put that at the top of your surfaces rather than grass?

ALEX de MINAUR: Well, I genuinely think if there were more tournaments on grass, I would probably have some better stats on grass than on hard court, but the sheer fact that we play almost on hard court all year round I think ends up making me a more dangerous player on the hard courts.

But, you know, both of these surfaces I enjoy very much so, and recently I've played some pretty good ball on the clay, as well.

Q. Following up on that, can you compare both the experience on the court and off the court between this tournament and Australia? I know it's night and day, I would imagine, but...

ALEX de MINAUR: Look, there are some similarities, of course. I think they're both quite quick surfaces. The ball travels through the air quite quickly. Maybe even a little bit quicker here at the US Open. You get some great crowd support, some very loud vocal crowd support, which is quite similar both in Oz and here.

The differences? I mean, at the Australian Open, I'm just around the corner, right? I don't have an hour commute coming in every day, which is a lot nicer. But look, this tournament has been quite special in my career. It's given me a lot of good memories and great results.

Yeah, I just feel comfortable here in New York. So, you know, hopefully I'll get some more good results here.

Q. I know you were full of praise Daniel out there, once again shows how small the margins are. He'd come off that really tough match. When did you feel you were turning the screws after losing that first set, because...

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, going into that match, look, I know he spent 10 hours on court, right? He can't hide away from that. And the fact that he's such a good competitor, he came out ready for a battle, right?

That first set kind of slipped away from me, but in the back of my mind I knew if I could make this physical, then I was probably going to be in a better shape, a little bit fresher than he was.

But yeah, even though saying that, it was complicated, because he's playing with such amazing confidence. He's had some great wins. His match against Tsitsipas was an absolute epic. I think over the years, he's changed his style of play, and he's become a more aggressive player. At the same time, he becomes a lot more dangerous this way.

So first set slipped away, but I did well to kind of lock in. Start of the second, saving some crucial breakpoints and then managed to kind of swing the momentum my way and then things started to feel a little bit better.

Q. Considering what you just said about this tournament has been a special event for you in your career, I'm sure you don't make mention of this in public, but do you feel a little bit slighted this year by the tournament in that you and Katie asked for the mixed doubles, time and time again it fell on deaf ears? And as the eighth seed and a quarterfinalist over here, they have not put you on one of the big three courts as yet.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, look, it is a little bit of a head scratcher for me. I'm not gonna lie. You know, I've got nothing against Court 17. I've played some good matches on that court, but I kind of felt like maybe I could have played on a bigger court.

But, hey, the way I kind of look at these things when things kind of don't play out the way I want them is just, I've got to win more matches, right? If I win enough matches, I'm sure I'll play on bigger courts.

So it goes back down to the same kind of mentality as there's no point really complaining about it. My best action forward is putting my head down, going out there, competing, winning matches, and yeah, if I keep on winning matches, I'm sure I'll play on bigger courts.

Q. Just on the match today, what did Altmaier say to you at the net?

ALEX de MINAUR: He just said, Look, it's not doing me any favors, it's not doing you any favor. And I really respected that. And I told him at the net that I've got a lot of respect for him. He's an absolute warrior.

Yeah, he went on until his body literally gave up on him. So I wished him a quick recovery. You know, he's a dangerous player, which I'm sure in the end of the year he's going to have some really good results.

Q. What do you make of your next opponent, Riedi?

ALEX de MINAUR: What I make is that he's going to be dangerous. I mean, any player that has a winning match streak, and he's come through quallies, and especially the type of player that he is, which he's a big hitter, he's going to be dangerous, right? He's going to try to hit the cover off the ball.

You know, my job is ultimately going to be make his life as difficult as it can, right, and see how that goes.

But no player in this stage is there by sheer luck. You know, he's earned his right there, and I'm ready for a complicated match. I think he'll come out swinging.

Q. Picking up on the question earlier, any advantage to being kind of under the radar and going about your business? I mean, 17 is a great court, obviously not as big as the other ones. But is there any sense of that, you're just sort of chugging along into the fourth round?

ALEX de MINAUR: I feel like I've been under the radar my whole career (smiling). So it's nothing new.

Q. I've been to Australia. You're not under the radar.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah. Look, the way I just go about my things is just let the tennis do the talking, right? And I take a lot of pride in that.

Hopefully I can be here in New York for much, much longer. For me, this was the first job done. Now on to the second week, which I'm quite excited for.

Q. I think it was here last year or two years ago where you had the pelvic midsection injury that turned out to be a very rare injury. I know there were doubts then. When you look back at a couple years ago, knowing that speed is, you know, so instrumental to your game, was there ever a point when you look back and you go, Wow, like, I really avoided something that was so serious and so rare of an injury?

ALEX de MINAUR: I mean, yeah, not a lot of people know how close I was to going under the knife and basically giving up on the season, right? Because I got a lot of different opinions. It wasn't getting any better.

The way I felt last year playing this tournament, I put it down to one of my best achievements in my whole career, being able to come out here and make the quarterfinals with how I was feeling.

But more than anything, ever since Wimbledon last year, what I had to deal with every time I walked on court, it was tough. Going out there, feeling like, you know, you want to but you can't, and you just don't know when, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel is going to come. It wasn't too pleasing.

I pushed really hard. I managed to make Turin, which was an incredible feeling. But going out there and not being able to compete the way I wanted to, as well, was tough. I'm glad that that's in the past. But it gave me so much confidence knowing that I could still put in certain performances without feeling at my very best.

That's probably the moment when I realized that I was a top-10 player and I felt like a top-10 player, that I could come out and just show my level. My level was good enough to have those results.

Q. When do you think that light...

ALEX de MINAUR: I think at the side of this year. After preseason it finally felt good again. Yeah, it was a long time.

I just needed a little bit of time off, a little bit of time working on it. I can say I came out to Australia and playing the United Cup was the first time I felt really good in a very long time.