"It could be better, it could be worse, right?" - Alex de Minaur focusing on positives after rough spell on court

At the start of 2026, Alex de Minaur came flying out of the blocks like a rocket. Some impressive runs, capped off with an ATP 500 title, left him in a good position to continue progressing. However, recent form has begged to differ. With just three singles wins from his last seven matches, concerns are rising around the world number seven.

After a strong United Cup, he let off a huge impression at the Australian Open. In his home Grand Slam event, the 27-year-old was playing some incredible tennis. He dropped one set enoute to the quarterfinal stage, defeating the likes of Frances Tiafoe and Alexander Bublik with commanding showings. He was halted in his tracks by Carlos Alcaraz, continuing his trend in failing to defeat the best players in the world while succumbing him to anther quarterfinal exit in a major tournament.

Following from this, he produced a brilliant week in the Netherlands where he won the ABN AMRO Open convincingly, taking down Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final. Since then, it has gone downhill pretty rapidly.

His preparation for the Sunshine swing was impacted with a first round exit in the Mexican Open before losing a thrilling third-round tie against an inform Cameron Norrie in straight sets at Indian Wells. Despite the performance of his opponent, it was a devastating loss in the first part of the Sunshine double. Miami was even worse, falling to a hugely out of form Stefanos Tsitsipas.

He was ready to put the hardcourts behind him as he searched for a pathway back to his best on clay. It is a strong surface for him, even if the results did not say so. It did in the Monte-Carlo Masters as he reached a third consecutive quarterfinal. However, he came unstuck against Monegasque Valentin Vacherot in three sets, a damaging defeat that prevented him from having a poke at Alcaraz for a spot in the final.

While his tournament campaign in Monaco could have gone better, it could have also gone a whole lot worse. He sought to focus on the positives from that competition as he looked forward to more big clay tournaments on the horizon.

“Yeah, look, it could be better, it could be worse, right? If you get a couple of wins under your belt, it’s always a good thing," he told Tennis TV.

“It always gives you a little bit of confidence. But at the same time, I still feel like there’s plenty of things I would like to improve on and get better with. But it was the first week on clay, so you take the positives, you move on to the next week, and hopefully you can tweak a couple of things and play even better."

That string of defeats was a painful blow, but he admitted that they were not bad performances. “What did I like? I liked that I got back into the winner’s circle. I felt like after a tough month, which wasn’t really like myself, I got a couple of early losses. And even though my level wasn’t bad, or I didn’t feel like I was too afraid about my level, I just wasn’t able to win those matches, right?"

The run in Monte-Carlo was a great chance for him to get the feel of the clay surface once more. He also relished the wins he got, earning him a touch of momentum. “So to get back, win a couple of tough matches, play the bigger points a little bit better, it kind of gives you a little bit of confidence," he acknowledged. "And obviously, just movement and feeling comfortable and adapting to a completely different game style on the clay has worked so far.”

First up for the Aussie is the Barcelona Open. He is the number three seed, and it is a tournament that he enjoys the format of. Similar to the Monte-Carlo Masters, the ATP 500 event is just one week long compared to the Madrid Open and Rome Open which span almost two.

“It is a very long stint,” De Minaur commented. “And these first couple of weeks, they’re great because they’re one-week events, right? And then kind of everything’s a lot more straightforward. You play, you back up the next day, and it makes it kind of easier to get into routines. It’s normally the Madrid-Rome stint, which is quite a long one."

The road to Roland Garros is the target for de Minaur. He will use this opportunity to gain as many wins and points as he can ahead of the second major event of 2026. “Ultimately, the only way to make it shorter really is to win a lot of matches, right? So that’s going to be the goal to hopefully be in the tournaments, to get a lot of matches. It’s an opportunity for me to try and gain some points, gain some momentum going into Paris, but it’s all going to come down to me being fresh mentally. I think that’s going to be the biggest thing.”