"I can't control if I win Slams or not": Alex de Minaur takes pragmatic attitude to Grand Slam dream

Alex de Minaur is on course to become the most successful Aussie player even in regards to prize money won having scooped close to $1m for winning the Ultimate Tennis Showdown but of course this is nothing compared to a potential tilt at winning a Grand Slam for the first time.

Albeit De MInaur takes more of a pragmatic approach when it comes to his dream of potentially one day becoming a Grand Slam champion and said that unlike the narrative that of course it is in his hands given he is the one who is on court playing, he sees it as different.

He said that ultimately if he is putting in the maximum effort and has the right attitude, he can only do exactly what he can do and there is nothing left on the table and it is very much in the manna of the gods if he manages to win one or not.

Speaking to Simon Cambers of The Guardian, he was compared to Andy Murray who lost his first four Grand Slam finals before the floodgates opened but he accepted he might not win a Slam and that was the point made as De Minaur lives in an era where he plays alongside kingpins Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz who share the Grand Slams.

“That is the narrative, it’s never good enough, right?” De Minaur says. “For me, more than anything, it’s using that as motivation towards achieving that [a slam title], which is obviously a big goal of mine, but at the same time, accepting that some things may happen, some things may not," said De Minaur in a long-form feature with The Guardian.

“Ultimately, I want to be happy with what I do in my career, and that goes down to what I can control. I can’t control if I win slams or not. I can control if I get better and I put in the right attitude and effort. And at the same time, give myself a pat on the back every now and again. It’s the little wins. I need to be a little bit nicer to myself.”

De Minaur said it was 'mentally killing him' to lose tight matches against the best players but he managed to reach the semi-finals in Turin which dispelled that but it came with a shift in mindset from the tournament.

“You live and die by the results, but ultimately, the best way to perform is to not give results that much importance, and you can play more free,” he says. “It’s something that I’ve been working towards for a while now, to not put so much expectation and pressure on myself, because I know that when I don’t, that’s when my best tennis comes.

“Instead of focusing on those results, just try to embrace a little bit more the process and the way I want to play, because that’s one of the biggest things [about] all the shifts in mindset I had in Turin. I was going to be completely OK if the result didn’t go my way, but ultimately, I just wanted to stick to my game plan and play my way, and I know that that was going to make me feel a whole lot better than if I didn’t do that.”

Amid all the conjecture about the schedule and the lack of a tennis off-season, De Minaur sits in the position that it all makes sense towards Australia as he embarks on playing more often than perhaps what is necessary to heads towards there in the best position.

“It’s now about building for Australia, making sure I arrive there ready to go but just being wary of not getting too burnt out,” he says. “I don’t think I want to be playing too much more, ideally playing less, but that all depends on results as well. So hopefully the results can help me out, and then I’ll gladly play [fewer] weeks. That means I’m doing well.”