John Millman Says Alex de Minaur is His Pick for Newcombe Medal
Tennis - Australia's No. 2 ranked player John Millman says that Alex de Minaur should be the favourite for the Newcombe Medal award on Monday night even though Ashleigh Barty also has a good chance to win. In an interview to The News, Millman says, “Ash should have a great chance. She won the Ashley Cooper Medal too and I have a lot of time for her. I’ll play devil’s advocate and say that I don’t think Alex can be overlooked. His ranking improvement was an incredible thing to do. He has made a couple of ATP finals (Washington DC and Next Generation Finals). I didn’t predict his meteoric rise and I can’t tell the average fan how hard it is to climb up the rankings that fast.’’
The Newcombe Medal is given to Australia's most outstanding tennis player of 2018 and Millman is one of the four nominees along with Barty, de Minaur and wheelchair champion Dylan Alcott. Barty won the award last year, after climbing from outside the top 300 to the Top 20. She finished 2018 as World No. 15, the second year in a row that she finished in the Top 20. She is also ranked No. 7 in the doubles rankings - making her one of only two women to be ranked insside the Top 20 in the world in singles & doubles.
De Minaur climbed from No. 208 in the rankings to No. 31 in 2018 and won the ATP Newcomer of the Year Award. de Minaur reached the Brisbane semi-finals and Sydney final at the beginning of the season. He also reached the Washington final and ended the year as a runner-up at the ATP NextGen Finals.
The highlight of Millman's season was reaching the quarter-finals of the US Open while Alcott, who won the award in 2016, won the US Open quad wheelchair singles title which was his sixth Grand Slam title. The award ceremony will be held in Melbourne on Monday night.
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