‘Step up and do some damage’: Demon fired up for Open
Darren Walton |
Forget his patchy form, Alex de Minaur earnestly believes he can seriously contend for US Open glory.
Australia’s world No.7 has all but wiped the slate clean ahead of what he considers the most open Open in years due to Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz’s unpredictable return from a four-month injury lay-off.
“I feel like it’s been a couple of months now where there’s been a lot of uncertainties with the top players injured or not playing,” de Minaur said ahead of his first-round stoush with Italian qualifier Andrea Guerrieri.
“We have seen a lot of different players stepping up and there are a lot of different opportunities being up for grabs so it’s open for someone to step up and do some damage.
“So hopefully I can be one of those guys that put their name in the hat and we’ll see how it goes.”
De Minaur’s bullish attitude comes despite early exits in Toronto and Cincinnati, his most recent defeat denying the 27-year-old a first-time grand slam top-four seeding.
But the notoriously intense sixth seed has somewhat uncharacteristically brushed off his lacklustre form, figuring he was always going to return a little rusty from his Italian honeymoon.
De Minaur is instead drawing confidence from back-to-back quarter-final appearances in New York, after making his first last-eight breakthrough at Flushing Meadows in 2020.
“I’ve been tough on myself because I’m that type of person, where I’m pushing myself to the absolute limit,” he said of his more mellowed approach.
“At the same time, I’m in a pretty good position. I’m playing some good tennis. I’m taking it easy trying to enjoy the process, get into that mindset that it eventually leads me to be playing some of my best tennis.
“And put all the rest on the backburner. Normally results take care of themselves but I don’t think there’s any need to put up the alarms.
“I don’t know the exact (ranking) number I am this week but we’ve got a whole lot of tennis yet to play. We’ve got the last grand slam of the year, my game is feeling good, so I think there’s a big result coming soon.”
While de Minaur doesn’t open his campaign until Tuesday Wednesday (AEST), six of his 14 Australian support cast get underway on day one.
Adam Walton is the first Aussie in action, playing one of the opening matches of the tournament on court 11 against China’s hard-hitting Yibing Wu.
Enjoying another fine season, Walton has no plans of being pushed around after making the second round in New York last year for the first time.
“He’s a pretty aggressive baseliner, so trying to be on my A game to minimise the amount of winners he’s going to be able to hit is going to be important,” Walton said.
“I’m just really excited to do battle. I have a lot of support here as I do in Australia, so a couple of my friends are flying up from Knoxville to come here and watch.
“And having my fiancee and her parents here, because it’s close enough for them to fly up, so it’s really good to have that support in some ways it feels like home.”
Aleksandar Vukic, up against Japan’s Rei Sakamoto, is the only other Aussie in men’s action.
Storm Hunter plays 11th-seeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, Kim Birrell faces Petra Marcinko, Talia Gibson also plays a Croatian in veteran Donna Vekic and fellow rising star Taylah Preston takes on American Alycia Parks.
AUSSIES IN ACTION ON DAY ONE OF THE US OPEN (FROM 1AM MONDAY AEST):
Men’s singles
Adam Walton v Yibing Wu (CHN)
Aleksandar Vukic v Rei Sakamoto (JPN)
Women’s singles
Kim Birrell v Petra Marcinko (CRO)
Talia Gibson v Donna Vekic (CRO)
Taylah Preston v Alycia Parks (USA)
Storm Hunter v 11-Marta Kostyuk (UKR)
This AAP article was made possible by support from Tennis Australia.
AAP