Coming off the back of a stellar season on tour, hot off the high of securing a fourth Newcombe Medal, Alex de Minaur has certainly proved his place as Australia’s No.1 player.
The 2025 season saw much of his signature strengths – his lightning speed, concrete resilience and steadfast focus – spur him on to a career-best year-end ranking of No.7 and some of his best performances to date.
As he jet-sets between countries, racking up accolades and titles (in July he claimed his 10th men’s singles title at the ATP 500 event in Washington), it seems nothing can compare to the innate pride he feels when reflecting on his homeland and the number of Australian players in the top-100 world rankings.
“I feel like this is where our nation deserves to be,” De Minaur said on The Sit-Down podcast. “We've got such rich history and culture when it comes to tennis and it's great to be able to show it.
“We are a very strong Grand Slam nation, and we are indeed just showing it with strength in numbers. Whether it's myself, whether it's any other Aussie, just to have good results out there, it means the world.”
His hopes are high upon entering the 2026 season. The United Cup is the season’s first cab off the tournament rank, where he will team up with top Australian woman Maya Joint in Sydney to represent Australia against Czechia and Norway. “I think it's going to be a lot of fun to start the year at Sydney at my hometown with Maya, representing the green and gold. I'm very excited for that.
“Hopefully that's going to be the perfect lead-up for the Australian Open, where I would love nothing more than to have a deep run there, keep building upon what I've been doing the last couple of years and hopefully be a threat to those... Be a threat for the title. That would be very, very nice.”
At Australian Open 2025, De Minaur experienced his furthest run in his home Grand Slam, advancing to the quarterfinals where he faced eventual champion Jannik Sinner. While he fell to the then-world No.1, he maintained perspective in the bigger picture, retrospectively realising the importance of celebrating small wins.
“We live in a sport that we are always striving for, for the next best thing. And we very easily forget once we've accomplished a goal, and many times we don't give ourselves enough credit for achieving that goal,” he said.
There’s something to be said about playing with an entire nation rallying behind you. Not only will De Minaur feel the full force of his Australian fans supporting him in the upcoming home Slam, but with the prestigious Newcombe Medal in his back pocket, it’s an added boon for the 26-year-old to know his efforts throughout the 2025 season have not gone unnoticed.
“To celebrate Australian tennis … especially the last five to 10 years, how much we have been growing in the right direction,” he added, “We are showing strength in numbers. We've had some amazing results by our fellow players, and it's just a great thing to be a part of.”
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