US OPEN

September 4, 2024

Alex De Minaur

Press Conference

J. DRAPER/A. de Minaur

6-3, 7-5, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Alex, if you would, your thoughts on the match.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I just want to say I'm very proud of myself, of what I have achieved, all things considering, doing everything I could to be in this position. Today it wasn't meant to be, but yeah, I'm proud of my efforts.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Did you aggravate the hip injury before or training yesterday or something? You seemed clearly hindered today.

ALEX de MINAUR: I think, look, Jack is never easy to play in the best of times, and the way he can spread the court, being a lefty and really move you around the court, it takes a toll on the body. Accumulation of matches takes a toll, as well.

But yeah, he played well. He deserves the win. He moved me around the court, and served great. In the few chances that I had I wasn't able to execute. Yeah.

Q. Just as an extension of that, I understand that you don't want to take anything away from Jack today, but, I mean, would you say you were some way short of 100% today?

ALEX de MINAUR: Sure. I wish I felt better. Let's just put it that way. It's tough. It's a big opportunity. It's a big chance.

I'd rather try and think about what I was doing six, seven weeks ago, and where I am now, and try to focus on that instead of dwelling on what just happened and me potentially having one of the bigger opportunities of my career and it just slipping away from my hands. So I'm going to stick with the positives that I'm proud of myself.

Q. Can we say whatever it was was linked and where does it take you in terms of Davis Cup, et cetera, coming up? Where do we look at for that in the future?

ALEX de MINAUR: I really don't know. I was not expecting today, if I'm honest. Everything was trending in the right direction. Now I don't know. That's the honest answer.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see how, with a couple days, how it pulls up.

Q. Did it feel like a different Jack Draper than the one you faced the previous three times?

ALEX de MINAUR: I think Jack has continuously improved every time we've played. Every year he's gotten better. He has the right work ethic. He's a great guy, great competitor, and yeah, he's doing the right things.

He's got weapons, he knows how to use those weapons effectively. And look, he's yet to lose a set in this tournament, so he's got to be doing something right.

Q. Just to clarify, you said you weren't expecting today. Was today significantly worse for you in terms of how you felt to the rest of the tournament building up to this point?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, today wasn't ideal. Yeah, as I said, I was expecting to feel better, I was trending in the right direction. And today was a little bit the opposite of that.

But yeah, it's fine. I dealt with it after Wimbledon. I'll deal with it after here, and I'll be back in no time, and hopefully sliding from side to side with not a thought in my head.

Q. What you said there about how tough Jack is to play, what chance you'd give him in a semi against potentially Daniil or Jannik?

ALEX de MINAUR: I think we have seen in this tournament anything is possible. If that wasn't the case, then we probably would have had all the seeded players in their respective rounds, and then the tournament would be quite boring in that sense, you know, no upsets at all. But we've seen that in these last couple weeks, and yeah, anything is possible.

You never know what happens out here, so I'm sure he's got a good chance. He's got big weapons, and he can hurt anyone. So yeah, why not?

Q. I fully appreciate you want to not talk about this aspect much, but during the match, were you in pain? Did it feel like your leg was blocking or getting blocked? In that case, considering what you've been through over the last eight weeks, did it all, at any time, cross your mind about stopping?

ALEX de MINAUR: No, stopping didn't cross my mind at any stage. It's not part of me, part of my DNA, I don't like it, if I'm honest. I'm always going to give my best.

And look, it could have been naive of me, but I genuinely thought that there was a chance even in that last game going in. You know, I thought that there was a chance that I was going to, you know, change the match around and go out there and, yeah, and win it.

So at every stage in that match, I gave myself a shot, with my attitude, with my mindset, to go out there. I had some chances, as well, that who knows if I would have taken them, then maybe I would still be on court right now.

So retiring, that's not part of me. Yeah, I think over my career, you'll very rarely witness that.