De Minaur declares “I’m extremely proud of my efforts” | 6 June, 2024 | All News | News and Features | News and Events

Following a career-best run at Roland Garros, Australian No.1 Alex de Minaur is excited to turn his attention to the grass-court swing.

Paris, France, 6 June 2024 | Leigh Rogers

Alex de Minaur is leaving Roland Garros with his head held high.

The 25-year-old, who became the first Australian to progress to the men’s singles quarterfinals at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament in 20 years, was upbeat after bowing out against world No.4 Alexander Zverev in Paris today.

“Whenever I step out on court, I’m never going half-heartedly,” De Minaur said. “I’m always going to leave my heart out there.

“I’m extremely proud of my efforts throughout the two weeks. Even today I think I put up a hell of a fight in adverse conditions against a quality opponent.”

De Minaur admitted the cooler temperatures during the evening session at Court Philippe-Chatrier didn’t help his chances against the confident Zverev, who has advanced to his fourth consecutive semifinal at the tournament.

“Zverev loves slow conditions. I think it’s no secret,” the world No.11 said. “His best surface is the clay. You put that plus a night match, obviously someone like myself it’s a little bit harder to penetrate and hurt him out there.”

“(But) I’m still happy with the way I showed up.”

> READ: De Minaur’s dream run at Roland Garros 2024 comes to an end

De Minaur is now looking forward “to jumping on the grass”.

“I sure hope I’m not running as much on the grass,” he smiled. “I’ll do my best to try to dictate a little bit more, and I’m hoping that my ball is going to penetrate a little bit more. But yeah, I’m excited for the grass, excited to, you know, let the surface help me out a little bit out there.”

De Minaur was a boys’ singles finalist at Wimbledon in 2016. He also won an ATP grass-court singles title at Eastbourne in 2021 and was a finalist at the prestigious Queen’s Club last year.

“It’s always a great part of the season for me,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes this year, because I’ve never gone so deep here in French, so hopefully that takes a lot of momentum and confidence on to the grass.”

De Minaur could return to clay next month, with the Olympic Games to be held at Roland Garros.

The Australian Olympic tennis team, which De Minaur is likely to be part of, will be confirmed in coming weeks.

“I showed that I’m perfectly capable,” De Minaur said of his new clay-court prowess. “It kind of shows that there’s no reason why I can’t put on a good showing (at the Olympics) and perform and win matches. I’ll be looking forward to it. I think it will be a little bit warmer, so it should be fun.”

In the meantime, De Minaur’s immediate focus is on taking a well-earned break.

“We’ll probably get on the golf course the next couple of days, play some golf,” he said of his plans.

“So I’ll (soon) be on the grass on a golf course and on the grass on a tennis court.”

Aussies in action – Roland Garros

RESULTS
Men’s singles, quarterfinals
[4] Alexander Zverev (GER) d [11] Alex de Minaur (AUS) 6-4 7-6(5) 6-4

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