THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 8, 2024

Alex De Minaur

Press Conference

A. de MINAUR/A. Fils

6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Alex, through to the quarterfinals. How are you feeling?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I'm feeling great. Super excited. This has always been a tournament I've wanted to do well in. I'm very happy to be in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Looked like something happened at the end of the match, that you were quite troubled by. Could you clarify it and let us know how you're feeling physically?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, just slid out to a forehand on my first match point. Felt like I jarred it a little bit. Kind of was a little bit ginger. Again, it's probably a little bit of a scare more than anything.

Situation was tight. In a way helped me relax and finish off the match.

Q. Jarred the knee?

ALEX de MINAUR: It was kind of more hip area.

Q. How does it feel now? Are you in any sort of discomfort at the moment? Is there extra treatment?

ALEX de MINAUR: I'm feeling pretty decent. Again, body went through a pretty physical match out there. Body feels a little bit ginger everywhere. I'm not going to lie.

I've done my recovery. I'm sure I'll be feeling great tomorrow.

Q. You said you were super excited to be in the quarterfinals. Were you getting a bit too excited about it in that last set? Was it messing with your head a little bit?

ALEX de MINAUR: Look, it's never easy. Obviously a couple years back I was in a similar position, being two sets to love up, as well.

Again, at the end of the day the crowd wants a spectacle, right? They want the match to go for as long as possible. You understand them getting involved, wanting Arthur to kind of have the comeback and all this.

Yeah, there was a lot going through my mind. Happy I was able to finish it off in the end. It definitely wasn't easy. It definitely wasn't straightforward.

But hey, I'm sitting here in the quarterfinals. So happy days.

Q. You talk about physicality. In that last set, I think you said on court you struggled to serve it out. You were breaking him at will. What was the sort of go with that? Seemed like you were both struggling to penetrate as much on serve.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I felt like conditions were quite slow today. On Court 1, covered, it felt quite slow. I think the way Arthur plays, as well, he uses a lot of spin on his forehand. That makes the balls, with the conditions, to open up, everything to be a little bit slower.

Yeah, I felt it was a little bit tougher. But I think in a way I didn't help myself. I didn't serve well in the moments that I needed to. I wasn't landing kind of my first serve. That's kind of what got me into trouble more often than not.

My returns, it's what I back myself all day every day with. It's won me a lot of points. It's put my opponents in a lot of pressure moments. I'm happy it was able to get me the win today.

Q. Interesting you talk about the crowd. What the crowd really wants is a Brit to be in the draw. You're virtually half British anyway with your girlfriend. Is there any chance we could borrow you, fly the flag for us?

ALEX de MINAUR: Oh, 100%. I'll take all the support I can get. I can be the honorary Brit here at Wimbledon. I'll take all the support I can get (smiling).

Q. Do you feel like you get a lot of support anyway?

ALEX de MINAUR: I do feel very loved out there, I must say. I always love coming here to Wimbledon and playing here. I always feel like I play some of my best tennis. Over the years I feel like the support I've had has grown significantly.

It's a great feeling as a player to know you've got a lot of people in that stadium backing you in, having your back when essentially you're so far away from home.

Q. You actually feel a bit British then?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, definitely over the years I've learnt a lot more about the British culture thanks to Katie. I'm getting there (smiling).

Q. There's been quite a few injuries on the grass under the closed roof. Has the surface been quite slippery? Do you think it's acceptable seeing this many high-ranked players going down, in some cases being out of matches?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I think it's unfortunate obviously. You never want to see this. But again, I think on grass, we're in a quite interesting dynamic when it comes to movement, right? I think in previous years we saw very, very few players sliding on a grass court, right? You would have your odd standout person, which normally was Novak, sliding on the grass.

I feel like as the years progress, sliding on a grass court is becoming more and more seen or used. A lot of us players, including myself, are getting a lot more kind of confidence on a grass court with being able to slide and back your movement in that way. Whether it's the right decision or not, I don't know.

Definitely over the past couple years I've gone through that mental blockage of being a little bit scared of sliding on the grass. Now I've just kind of backed myself to move almost as if I was on a hard court.

Q. What happened two years ago must have been in your mind. To come through that, for example when you're 2-1 down, Love-40, come through that, win the match, must give you a lot of strength in your resilience in those circumstances.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, it's all about the little wins. My whole career has been about that, getting better every day, learning from tough experiences. I think that's the key to becoming a better tennis player.

I've taken a lot of the tough moments that I've gone through in my career, there's only one way to look at it, and that's learn from it.

Us humans, we tend to be the only living thing that makes the same mistake twice. I'm glad I didn't make that same mistake today.

Q. We asked Alexei Popyrin after he lost to Novak the other night about you. He said he thinks you can win the title. Do you feel like you've reached the standard that you are now a Grand Slam title contender?

ALEX de MINAUR: Well, I think I want to start off with saying how good of a week Alexei had. He played some great tennis. He pushed Novak till the very end. It was such a good match. I'm so happy to see him playing at that level. That's the tennis he can bring. Very excited to be representing Australia at the Olympics with him and playing doubles with him.

As for myself, I think over the years my belief has grown a little bit more and more. Obviously results have a lot to do with that, where you are in the rankings.

Yeah, I'm just taking it day by day, very slowly. I'm happy to break new grounds here at Wimbledon. Yeah, as I said, I'm excited for the next challenge and battle.

I'm going to go out there and whoever I play, I see it as a 50/50 match. Whilst in the past, maybe I didn't have that same mindset.

Q. Can we get you to talk about both of them?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I don't think you need to talk too much about Novak here at Wimbledon. He's obviously achieved greatness many, many years. So he's going to be a tough battle. But the type of battles that I want to be playing. Those are the challenges that I want to take advantage of and go out there and show what I can do.

Holger, he's super talented. He's had deep runs at slams before. He's troubled Novak in the past. He's probably more of a flashier player, which he goes through stages of matches where he's unplayable, then sometimes he gives you a couple errors here and there, whilst I feel like Novak is a lot more constant and solid with his level throughout the whole match.

Q. As good as your returning has been, has it bothered you at times you haven't been able to close out a match with a commanding position with your serve? In one of your previous matches, an Australian fan just yelled out, Just finish him, Alex.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I would love to just finish him (smiling).

Whether I'm frustrated or not, the way I see it is I'm winning tennis matches, right? At the end of the day it doesn't matter if it's perfect, if it's pretty, if it's ugly or what it is, right? At the end of the day if I win the last point and I'm shaking my opponent's hand and I have a big grin on my face, then it means I got the job done, right?

Of course, as you go deeper in a tournament, you want to be playing better, you want to be executing a little bit better. That's one of the areas that I can definitely improve on.

Q. You were just talking about sliding on grass. What's the difference or similarity between sliding on grass to sliding on clay? That's where most people are sliding in a match.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I would say sliding on a grass court is probably more similar to sliding on a hard court, right, mainly because the shoes that we wear have so much grip. If it wasn't for that, if we had normal hard court shoes, you'd see everyone sliding like it was probably even more than clay. But the fact that we've got so much grip on our shoes, then we've got to commit to a slide, which you do on a hard court as well.

Once you kind of get through that, I guess that scare factor that you're going to kind of roll your ankle or something like that, and just trust that you've got enough momentum to kind of slide, it's a game changer on the grass.

Any extra inch you can get movement-wise on the grass is definitely a big advantage over your opponents.

Q. If it is Novak, what is your take on his basically comeback within four weeks from knee surgery? What do you think of what he's done?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I'm not surprised. I mean, we've seen him do these things in the past, recover and be back like he never left.

Of course, he's one of those guys that looks after his body, does all the 1 percenters in the whole world. You can tell with his quick recovery time.

It doesn't surprise me. There were rumors he was maybe going to miss Wimby or whatever. I knew deep down he was definitely going to be back.

Yeah, it doesn't shock me that he's back in the quarterfinals. Well, not yet. Back in the fourth round playing some great tennis, looking like he never left.

It's just what Novak does.

Q. He remains the ultimate challenge to you on grass?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, of course. I played Novak once in a slam. It's fair to say it was quite a challenge. I'm looking forward to this matchup next time around. I think I'm a different player. I'm definitely looking forward to the challenge.

Q. We've seen with your forehand and the serve that the speeds increase. On the return, how much are you putting into improving that element of your game and adjusting positions, switching around from when you were a younger player?

ALEX de MINAUR: I think the return is something that's always come quite natural to me. I don't know whether it's got to do with the mentality of me trying to win every single point.

I've always felt that I'm one of those players that creates a lot of pressure for my opponents when they're serving, right? Even if I'm not breaking, I'm creating opportunities. Even if I don't win the game, I've got a Love-30, I've got a 15-30, a 30-All. I'm in their service games.

For me it's always very important. Even if they're 40-Love up, but just to keep letting them know that I'm in every single game.

I think over especially a five-set match, that's when you start to see the cracks. Sometimes you earn the break. Sometimes they're given to you. But they count the same.

That's always a focus for me, to kind of be ready on return. On serve, if I get broken, I know I'm still going to get chances to hopefully break back.