THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 30, 2026

Alex De Minaur

Press Conference

A. de MINAUR/R. Burruchaga

7-6, 6-1, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: First question for Alex, please.

Q. How did you find that? Obviously got the challenge early for the first set and a half, break points early in the second set. Quite comfortable from that point.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I think it was a little bit of a slow, nervy start to get us off. I think Roman lifted his level and the first set was a battle. I had a slow start, and then I got back into it. From then on it was pretty tight. Could have gone either way.

Again, found a way through that first set. All of a sudden I was able to kind of free up and take it on to kind of that next level, next gear, which I have been playing in practice. Played a really confident second and third set, which I was really proud of.

Q. How difficult is it when you come up against someone who has only played a little bit on grass; you wouldn't see much of him on grass? How hard was that initially?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, it is difficult because as much as, you know, he might not be as confident on the grass, it still takes a while to kind of really notice that or play yourself into a match.

I feel like today, because of a little bit of his spin, the court felt a little bit slow, I kind of was in front of a couple of balls. I struggled to get rhythm early on.

Sometimes you have to play three, four, five games to really start to notice what the weaknesses are because you haven't seen enough of them play. You know what works on maybe other surfaces, but since you've seen so little on a grass court, it takes a while to see what kind of works and what doesn't, what he feels comfortable with, what he doesn't.

I think that was the case today. I played my way into it, then all of a sudden I started to find the patterns that worked for me. It all started to make a little bit more sense.

Q. Was this, like, the perfect start? A challenging first set, only two hours on court, finding your feet nicely by the end. An ideal sort of start?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, look, I think it's always a good thing when you can get through a match where maybe you didn't play your best, right? There were stages of that match you didn't play your best. There's lots to learn from that.

Even for me personally, I think the way I played that first set, I need to be a lot more relaxed and not get as frustrated when maybe I'm not playing my best level. It is a long match, right?

Even if potentially that first set doesn't go my way, I need to be in a calm mindset to turn it around in the second and third set - or if it takes four sets, it takes four sets.

I managed to sneak through that first set, then kind of free up and play confident tennis. I was happy with the way I was moving. I got a couple slides in, which always I feel is quite important, getting that footing and footwork on the grass court.

Yeah, looking forward to the next one.

Q. Obviously a great result for you. A mixed one for the household. What's it like going on court knowing that Katie didn't get the result she wanted? How do you handle that balance now for the rest of the fortnight? Does she have to go out of her way to stay positive even though she's disappointed?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, today was a tough one for Katie. She does so incredibly well to put these tough moments behind her, or at least she makes that effort.

Now for me was trying to kind of stay in my lane in a way and focus on what I needed to do. It's not easy by any means because ultimately you want the whole kind of household to keep on winning all day every day.

No, she is great. I'll see her once I'm done back home. I'll do what I can to be there for her. Yeah, she's great. She'll be disappointed, but I know she'll get through it.

Q. World Cup, I know you're a passionate soccer or football fan. You're aware of what your opponents did back in the day. Is that something you've talked about? Also when you hear during the World Cup, the feel of, you know, England plays tomorrow, Australia in a couple days, you've got family heritage from Spain. What does it mean to you, this moment? Do you watch a lot? Do you get distracted? Do you not? How do you approach it all?

ALEX de MINAUR: Honestly, I love it. I feel like whenever there's so much sport going on at the same time, you've got, except for this morning, you got the sun out, it's a beautiful time, you have the pubs full, living and loving football, you've got Wimbledon on. I think it's just great. Every night, every weekend we're kind of just putting on the TV, we're flicking through either tennis matches or football matches, right?

Of course, there's some that we follow a little bit closer than others. But as you said, I've got basically a Spanish team, right? All the Spanish games, unless they're in a tough schedule. We got Australia and we got the UK, right?

It's been great. There's been a couple nights where we've just had a barbie at home, and just watched the football. It's been great.

Q. You mentioned kind of getting used to grass and sliding and things like that. How are you finding playing on grass this season, the difference between clay and grass? How are you finding playing on this surface?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I love it. I mean, it's always a part of the year which I look forward to. I think it always comes in at the perfect timing, right? Even though over the years I've gotten a lot better at playing on the clay, I've adapted kind of my game style to try to be effective on the clay. By the end of the clay swing, I always feel tired. I always feel mentally kind of fatigued.

It's almost that transition from clay to grass, it just gives me a new life, right? Everything kind of starts to make sense again. Like, I can go back to playing a lot more of my natural game style. I don't have to worry about playing with so much spin. I can use my flatter groundstrokes.

It is a very quick and easy transition for me, which I like.

Q. Mannarino next, tricky opponent on grass. You have a decent record. How do you feel about that?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I don't know. You look at the numbers, he's one of the better grass court players we've had over the last X amount of years.

He's an incredibly tricky opponent, right? When we play each other, I think we both know how to make each other feel uncomfortable, right? A lot of our matches, you won't see a lot of topspin. There's going to be a very low net clearance, a lot of flat shots, a lot of low balls.

We both try to make each other feel uncomfortable, right? It's about who can execute a little bit better and who's on their game. I know going into that match, I've got to be up for it from the very start because if not, it is not easy.

He's not a player that you can kind of get a rhythm with, right? It's not a normal player that maybe is going to give you a couple looks at balls. Every ball is normally below the net, right, it's so flat and so low. It makes a completely different type of game style. Yeah, I've got to get ready to get low. The legs are going to feel it (smiling).

Q. Hearing how you speak about the grass and how fondly you feel on this surface, the results you've had, do you turn up here feeling like this is the best chance you have to win a Grand Slam title?

ALEX de MINAUR: I'm always excited when it comes to this slam. I've always felt like my game makes sense on the grass. I've played well here in the past. I've had kind of some mixed results really.

There's been some opportunities that maybe I haven't taken. There's been some years where I wasn't able to step on court for a quarterfinals. Last year probably had some chances to get through Novak in the fourth round. Who knows what could happen.

For me, I do feel good playing here, right? A lot of it is just I feel like if I can give myself the chance and the opportunity, it probably is my best shot at going really deep at a slam.

So I'm going to do my best to try to give me that shot.