Emotional Alex de Minaur praises native Sydney after the first ATP title
Alex de Minaur, one of the most talented players of the new generation, has had quite a journey so far, born in Sydney to an Uruguayan father and the Spanish mather and traveling between Sydney and Alicante in Spain for the last 15 years. One thing that has been steady as a rock is his tennis progress from the very early days somewhere around 2003, carving his way through the junior level and catching the attention of the tennis world in 2016 when he gained 1200 positions on the ATP ranking list. Ranked just outside the top-200, Alex kicked off 2018 with the semi-final in Brisbane and the first ATP final in Sydney, never looking back and scoring 28 ATP wins to finish just outside the top-30 and as one of the youngest players on the year-end top-100 list with Denis Shapovalov.
After that close Sydney final loss, Alex was also in the title match in Washington and the NextGen Masters in Milan, losing to fellow youngsters Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas before changing his fortune this week in Sydney when he claimed the first ATP title. De Minaur needed more than two hours to dismiss Andreas Seppi 7-5, 7-6 in the final, lifting his maiden ATP trophy and becoming the first teenager with an ATP title since Andrey Rublev in Umag 2017. Also, Alex is the youngest Sydney champion since his mentor Lleyton Hewitt in 2001 who has been with him in Sydney during the entire week. After the match, Alex said some kind words at the trophy ceremony about his rival, box, crowd and Sydney in general, sharing that unique moment with the entire Ken Rosewall Arena a few minutes after receiving the trophy from the legendary Rosewall himself.
"There is plenty of thank you I have to say, the tournament was unbelievable and it makes me come back over and over to compete here. I would like to thank my box, all my team, family and friends, it is crazy this actually happened because I thought it wouldn't. It is third time lucky for me and it means a world to me to do it in front of all you guys, in front of my home. Thank you guys for your support whole week and all year round, there's nothing better than Sydney. I would like to congrats Andreas on a great week, he played some unbelievable tennis and I think I just got lucky today. I don't know what to say, thank you all and have a good night."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2VOyZ4P
No comments