MELBOURNE, Australia — After defeating two-time Slam quarterfinalist Tennys Sandgren in the opening round of the Australian Open, an emotional Alex De Minaur aimed a series of fist pumps towards the Melbourne sky.
The 21st seed couldn’t contain his elation, not just at tasting victory once again at a major, but mainly for being back playing on his favourite stage, with a small but noisy legion of fans cheering him on.
“It’s honestly amazing to be back in Melbourne playing in front of my home crowd,” De Minaur said after the match on John Cain Arena. “I’ve genuinely missed you guys and it feels good to be playing here. I had a bit of nerves coming in [but] there’s nothing I love more.”
It’s a stark contrast to 12 months ago for De Minaur.
The 21-year-old was left heartbroken when a four-centimetre long Grade 2 abdominal tear, sustained during last year’s ATP Cup, forced him out of the Australian Open at the eleventh hour.
It was a “devastating” blow for the top-ranked Australian man, who was in so much pain from the injury that even “getting out of bed hurt.”
Shortly after withdrawing from his home Slam, De Minaur returned to Spain — where he now resides — and made the decision to take a break from tennis.
“It was a tough time,” De Minaur recalled. “I had to switch off of social media. I mean, it was devastating.
“[Having] all of my mates, all of my teammates out here in the summer doing what they do best, I really didn’t want to be a part of it.”
De Minaur, who reached the third round of the Australian Open in 2019, said he watched only a few minutes of the tournament last year as the pain of missing out was too much to bear.
“Honestly, I think I might have turned it on to watch maybe Nick [Kyrgios] play [Karen] Khachanov and Johnny [Millman], but I probably watched about five, 10 minutes,” he said. “I didn’t really want to have that in my head. I was around family and friends, and I just tried to switch off.”
De Minaur made his Slam return at the US Open in September, defeating Richard Gasquet, Kachanov and Vasek Pospisil, before losing to eventual champion Dominic Thiem in the quarterfinals.
Now back in Melbourne, the 21-year-old will be looking to continue his hard court form when he takes on Pablo Cuevas for a place in the last 32. The Uruguayan ousted Italian journeyman Andreas Seppi in four sets in the opening round of the tournament.
“He’s a very tough opponent, very solid,” De Minaur said of Cuevas. “He’s going to make me play a lot of balls [and] I’m going to have to try and focus on my side of the court and do what I have planned and try to execute.
“At the end of the day that’s what we’ve been working on to try to control the controllables and stay positive.”