DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS

February 22, 2025

Alex De Minaur

Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: First question.

Q. What do you think about the tournament, your thoughts?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I'm excited to be back here in Dubai. Obviously it's been a while since I've been back here. I'm very excited to get started.

It's a beautiful place, beautiful venue. Hopefully I can play some good tennis this week.

Q. Did you visit some places?

ALEX de MINAUR: I haven't as of yet. The plan is tonight to have a nice dinner somewhere.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the turnaround from Doha, coming to Dubai, and also your first round against Cilic.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, it's very different conditions coming from Doha here to Dubai. Obviously it's a lot warmer here. The conditions are a lot quicker, I would say. It's going to take a little bit getting used to these conditions.

Look, I'm looking forward to a very tough first-round match against Cilic. Veteran player with a lot of experience who is very dangerous, especially on these types of courts. I'm expecting a battle.

I'm going to have to make sure I bring my best level and make sure I compete from the first point to the last. Yeah, we'll see what happens.

Q. What do you make of your start to the season? Feels like you're creating a lot of opportunities for success in these tournaments. What do you make of your progress and how do you feel you are closing the gap between yourself and the others?

ALEX de MINAUR: Look, obviously I'm pretty happy with the way I've started the year. I played some great tennis. I've lost to Jannik. I've lost to Carlos. Now I lost to Andrey with having a match point, right (smiling)? Obviously the last one stings a little bit because I feel like I had my chances. It just kind of slipped away in the very end.

But look, it's all about putting myself in those situations, giving myself the opportunity to play a lot of matches, win a lot of matches.

Hey, I'm doing the right things. I'm confident that it's going to lead me in the right direction and help me achieve the goals I want to achieve.

Q. What was your approach in the off-season after having so many matches last year to maintain that level of consistency but give yourself a chance to recharge?

ALEX de MINAUR: Well, it was a very short turnaround. I mean, for me, we always have Davis Cup, so that always extends our year. I feel like there's not that much time once Davis Cup finishes. For me, I take two, three days off, then pre-season starts.

The way I finished the year and everything that happened last year just gave me a lot of hunger and motivation to kind of pursue the grind, keep working hard, keep trying to improve on the little things that I can. Ultimately I was very happy with what I achieved, but I still believe I've got more in the tank. Ultimately I just want to fulfill that.

Q. The USTA is going to play mixed doubles ahead of the championships. Where do you stand on that? What do you think of the whole thing?

ALEX de MINAUR: Look, ultimately you're going to have very different answers based on who you ask, right?

If I'm looking purely at myself and the situation I'm in, it does present an opportunity for me to play mixed doubles, which in previous years I probably wouldn't have done just because as the format is right now for a singles player, you're not really going to play mixed doubles because your priority is obviously the singles.

It's halfway through the tournament, so it makes it way too difficult, especially for the men who are playing best-of-five sets. They want to make sure they get their recovery in, all that stuff.

The way it's proposed now, it definitely entices a lot more of the singles players to play, and it's an opportunity. Me personally, I really enjoy playing mixed doubles, so I think it's going to be fun to hopefully play some mixed with Katie, which will be exciting.

It obviously isn't the best situation for the doubles players, taking away their chance and opportunity to play these events. I guess we'll have to wait and see how that first week turns out, then go from there, right?

We'll see how the final product looks, if it works, if it doesn't. I'm sure they'll make a decision after that.

Q. What are your thoughts on the results of the draw? What are your expectations? Are you going to change anything in your game after you saw the results?

ALEX de MINAUR: Look, I know who my first-round opponent is, and that's all that matters, right? Don't look too much into the draw. I know I've got a tough match coming up with a big server. I'm going to do my best to try and neutralize that and play on my terms.

Yeah, hopefully I'm going to spend a lot of days here in Dubai. But it all starts with the first-round match.

Q. Obviously you and Katie have your own teams but watch a lot of each other's matches. How often do you find yourselves scouting for each other and how familiar are you with each other's fields?

ALEX de MINAUR: Just the sheer fact of watching so many of her matches, you kind of end up knowing the players, right, seeing them play. I feel like I've watched so many matches on the WTA Tour just by, yeah, watching Katie, right?

I think we've both learned a lot from each other's tours. Before we were together, we probably didn't know as much. It's been kind of fun to have those two dynamics.

We bounce off each other: she gives me advice, I give her advice. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't. It's all with a good heart.

Q. How do you look at the top 10 today as against when you were coming up maybe five, six years ago? Do you find a big difference in styles and the way the ball is hit, the serve?

ALEX de MINAUR: That is a great question.

I feel like right now tennis is evolving into a sport where the ball speed is a little bit quicker. I feel like people are hitting the ball with a lot more force. You're losing a little bit of that variety that maybe you had with obviously the likes of Roger out there.

It feels like everything's a lot more fast-paced, right, because the technology, racquets, the balls. Conditions are slower, everyone is hitting the ball so much harder.

The average ball speed - I would need a fact check - but I'm pretty certain that it's gone up since I've even started on tour. Everything is a little bit more fast-paced, right? You have a little bit less time to think.

In the past you had someone like Rafa, which played with extreme spin and heaviness and shape. Completely different ball, but at least you had a little bit of time to think about it. It kind of spread you in different ways. There were more angles.

Now it just feels like it's very quick and kind of, yeah, big hitting I guess is probably the best way I can describe it.

As a player myself, I've had to adapt and kind of find ways to hit the ball a little bit harder just to adapt. Adapt or die, yeah (smiling).