Demon celebrates wedding and career-high world No.5
Glenn Moore |
After his crushing Wimbledon defeat to Flavio Cobolli, life has picked up for Alex de Minaur, who was in despair after last week’s fourth round loss.
On Sunday, while Jannik Sinner was beating Alexander Zverev in the men’s final, he married British No.2 Katie Boulter near the English midlands village in which she grew up, and on Monday he reached a career-best fifth in the world rankings.
He is the first Australian man to make the top five in 17 years and the seventh in total following Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Pat Cash, Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt. The current Davis Cup captain, who had previously reached No.1, was last in the top five in January 2009.
Confirmation came on Monday with the ATP’s ranking list, in which Wimbledon champ Sinner remains clear at the peak, Zverev overtakes injured Carlos Alcaraz in second, and quarter-finalist Felix Auger-Aliassime stays fourth.
Then comes de Minaur, who moved above Ben Shelton.
Shelton’s first round Wimbledon exit didn’t just open up a clear path to the semi-final for de Minaur, which made his defeat so painful, it also hit the American’s ranking. Having been a quarter-finalist in 2025 he had 400 points to defend (points last for a year). He earned ten.
De Minaur, having also lost in the fourth round last year, to Novak Djokovic, broke even, winning as many points as he gave up.
Djokovic could have climbed above de Minaur had he reached the final, but he lost in the semis to Sinner so stays seventh.
Last year de Minaur began and ended Wimbledon 11th so this represents a year of real progress even if it doesn’t always feel like it, given he also reached quarter-finals in Melbourne and New York and the third round in Paris.
That, however, is a minor improvement on the previous 12 months in grand slams (two quarter-finals and a second round Paris exit in 2025) and he also reached four Masters quarter-finals, won ATP 500 events in Washington and Rotterdam and made the last four at the ATP Finals.
So there’s plenty to celebrate as de Minaur and Boulter enjoy some time together before the north American hardcourt swing begins for the duo.
It is, however, a long way down the rankings to find Australia’s No.2, James Duckworth, up five places to 74th having also lost to Cobolli at Wimbledon.
Adam Walton (up six to 79th) and Rinky Hijikata (down 15 to 97th) are the other Aussies in the top 100.
In the WTA rankings Talia Gibson remains at 58, the leading Australian. Also in the top 100 are Daria Kasatkina (up two to 63), Kim Birrell (up seven to 65), Maya Joint (up ten to 77) and Ajla Tomljanovic (up two to 92).
Boulter, incidentally, is 67th.
The big mover in either chart is Briton Arthur Fery, the Wimbledon wildcard whose run to the semi-final thrilled the home audience. He has vaulted 78 places to 36, by far his career-high.
ATP WORLD RANKINGS TOP TEN
1 Jannik Sinner (ITA) 13450 points
2 Alexander Zverev (GER) 8480
3 Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) 8160
4 Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 4740
5 Alex de Minaur (AUS) 4110
6 Ben Shelton (USA) 3770
7 Novak Djokovic (SRB) 3760
8 Daniil Medvedev 3670
9 Flavio Cobolli (ITA) 3460
10 Taylor Fritz (USA) 3365
AAP