Álex de Minaur is in Acapulco, where he will begin his title defense tonight. The Australian confessed that this tournament gave him the confidence he needed to defeat the best players in the ranking and now he returns to Mexican soil to show that that was no coincidence.
The Acapulco tournament will witness how Álex de Miñaur will try to revalidate his title obtained last year. The Australian will debut in a few hours against Taro Daniel and arrives in totally different conditions than on that occasion, now being in the top 10 and having achieved renowned victories against the best players in the world such as Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev or Taylor Fritz. De Minaur is clear that Acapulco is a place where he received a lot of love, motivating him to obtain the most important title of his career in what ended up being an important turning point in getting to where he is.
Since becoming champion on Mexican soil, the Aussie has starred in great moments such as reaching different finals at Queen’s, in Los Cabos and even at the Canadian Masters 1000. In addition, he was the main architect of taking Australia to the Davis Cup final and had a splendid start to the year in the United Cup, defeating Taylor Fritz, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev consecutively. “It’s been a gradual improvement throughout my career and it’s been great to get these wins against the best players because in the past that’s probably what let me down. I couldn’t break through against the top 10. I used to always struggle a lot more and couldn’t break through. And if you want to move up the rankings, it’s quite difficult to do so if you don’t win these types of matches. But a couple of big wins in Acapulco really gave me a lot of confidence and I was able to build on that. I had a great start to the year and I hope I can continue like this,” he told the ATP.
Last year, De Minaur completed a great week in Acapulco in which he defeated Holger Rune in the semifinals and Tommy Paul in the final. The Australian beat the Norwegian in a great game that he had to overcome, as he also did against the American: “It was a super special week. In the end it was my most important title to date. I played a very good match against Holger where I finished I think at 3:45 in the morning. I had to take an ice bath and recover and the next day I played against Paul in the final. I could barely sleep. I went for it and ended up beating him in three sets and basically having a fairytale week, so it was a great moment.” Everything ended badly for the Australian, but the key was to keep his mind focused on the victory and leave behind the physical fatigue that he carried in the last hours: “You are simply telling yourself that you have one more game left. A big push “You leave it all out there, no matter what. You’re playing for the title, so you fake it until you make it.”
Going for the defense of the title
This time, De Minaur will fight in the Mexican tournament as number 9 in the ranking, instead of occupying position 22. In addition, he will have to face a squad of high-level players such as Holger, Zverev, Tsitsipas, Fritz or Shelton. Thus, the Aussie will have the opportunity again to defend a title, will he be able to achieve it for the first time? The reality is that he is in the best moment of his career, so why not?
2024-02-26 20:14:49
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