QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN

February 19, 2025

Alex De Minaur

Press Conference

A. de MINAUR/B. van de Zandschulp

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congrats on the win. You're making your debut in Doha this year, it's newly upgraded to a 500 event. How have you found it so far, is there anything about the event that stands out for you in terms of the way it's organized, etcetera?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, obviously my first time here in Doha. I've heard nothing but amazing things about this tournament as a 250, and it's been great to be here as a 500 as well.

As a player they have treated us really, really well. It's a beautiful city, so I'm enjoying my time here.

Q. Obviously you've played Dubai a couple of times before, I think, you obviously had success in Acapulco the last couple of years. Is there any specific reason you decided to compete in the Middle East this year, and is it hard obviously when you're a defending champion to not go back somewhere?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, a hundred percent, but I think it's, in a way I was almost forced into playing just based on scheduling, right. When you look at this kind of swing, you go Rotterdam, into Doha, into Dubai, so you play three 500s. Well, if you go to the States, you're playing a 500, into a 250, into Acapulco, right. It's not the greatest schedule out in America at the moment, so this schedule for me made a lot more sense due to the strength of the tournaments and a lot of points on offer.

And, yeah, it's extremely hard not to go back to Acapulco where I played so well in the past, but I'm looking forward to playing some good tennis here in the Middle East. I haven't had too much success in Dubai over the last couple years, so I'm hoping to change that.

Q. You've got Andrey next, who is obviously a former champion here as well, but you haven't played him since Rotterdam last year. Just your general thoughts on that matchup, and when you played him in the past what has been the most challenging aspects of his game?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, look, I think it makes total sense that he's won here before, right. I think these conditions suit him very, very well, they're quite slow, quite heavy. He's able to really unload on the ball, and not really miss too much.

It's going to be a very tough match, and I'm expecting an absolute battle. He's going to try and take the initiative and try to look for his forehand and dictate as much as he can, and I've got to do my best to try and neutralize that. It should be, hopefully, a good match.

Q. You lost this year only against Carlos and Jannik. What do you think that made you such a good player and keeping this series of victory against a lot of other good players?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I'm very happy with the consistency I've shown so far. Obviously last year was a great year for me, which kind of got struck when I got injured in Wimbledon at kind of my career high at the stage.

The rest of that year I did everything I could to kind of manage the pain, but I wasn't a hundred percent. I still managed to win a lot of tennis matches. I managed to qualify for Turin, which was a big goal. I didn't finish the year great, losing a lot of matches in a row, but I learned a lot out of myself.

So this year, being healthy, I'm doing all the right things, I'm putting myself in the right situations, so hopefully I'm going to have a lot of opportunities and keep winning a lot of matches.

Q. You got the chance to see the end of the match last night, the last one, Tsitsipas against Medjedovic?

ALEX de MINAUR: I actually watched the first set and then went to sleep. But I saw, on social media I saw everything that happened at the end of the match, yeah. It was pretty crazy.

Q. So it happened to you something like this, or you played against an opponent injured that actually he managed to win the match?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I played plenty of matches with opponents where sometimes they're not feeling physically great or they're cramping. It's tough because, for you, the opponent, you know, you got to do your best to try to extend rallies, but what happens to your opponent is if they're cramping or not feeling physically fit, they relax, right. They just start swinging freely, and more often than not they start making the balls, right. They take all the pressure away from them and they become very, very dangerous players. When a tennis player plays without pressure, that equals a very dangerous opponent.

I can only image how Stefanos felt yesterday. It's obviously a tough situation, and, you know, unlucky that he didn't get the win in the end.