“The schedule is never ending”: Alex de Minaur warns against having just one tennis coach

Australia’s Alex de Minaur believes that the days have gone where tennis players can have just one coach because of a tough schedule. There has been a lot of discussion about how congested the tennis schedule has been. Last year, two big name players, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Poland’s Iga Swiatek raised their concern about the hectic schedule.

Australia’s De Minaur has become the latest addition to that list, who has now talked about the difficulty of having just one coach. The 26-year-old spoke to the media after cementing his spot in the quarterfinal of the US Open with a thumping straight-set win over Switzerland’s Leandro Riedi with a score of 6-3, 6-2, 6-1.

Talking after the match to the media, De Minaur was asked whether it is possible to have just one coach to deal with the stress of playing at the highest level in professional tennis. In response to that, De Minaur stated that such a thing is not possible anymore as having just one coach means that person will not be able to go and spend time with his family.

"And my reasoning towards that is that if the coach has a family, then he's not going to be able to see his family," said De Minaur. "The schedule that we have as players is never ending, and more often than not that's the whole reasoning for having two coaches. To split the weeks so they can, of course, spend time with their family. Because the player themselves, I know what I signed up for. I'm used to that, and it's one of the not ideal scenarios of our sport that I don't get to spend time at home with family and close friends. But, again, I don't want my team to ever feel that way."

De Minaur gave an example of his coach, who according to him has a young family but still spends so much time with him. De Minaur was of the opinion that in such cases, it is important to have two coaches. De Minaur also highlighted the importance of having good communication with both coaches.

"My coach, he's got a young family. Over the years, I've been with him almost 17 years, and it gets to a point where, of course, I'm never going to tell him that he's not allowed to go and spend time with his family," de Minaur said. "He's already spent so much time with me. So I do think with the current schedule that it is completely normal to have coaches split weeks, and there's nothing wrong with that. No matter who is my coach at the tournament, they're both in constant communication, and they're both going back and forth with feedback. That's the key purpose of any healthy relationship, working relationship, is communication."

De Minaur’s next assignment is facing Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime to fight for a spot in the semifinal of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. Auger-Aliassime cemented his spot in the quarterfinal after beating Russia’s Andrey Rublev in the last-16 clash with a score of 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. It will be the fourth meeting between the two players in professional tennis at the highest level. In the previous three meetings, Auger-Aliassime had a slight advantage as he won on two occasions and suffered just one defeat. However, in their last meeting, which was in the round of 32 of the Madrid Masters, it was De Minaur who came out on top with a score of 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.

During the same press talk, De Minaur shared his strategy to counter the threat of the Canadian tennis star. “I think Felix is that type of player that everyone knows that his top level is incredibly high and when he's playing with confidence, he's very tough to beat,” said De Minaur. “And this week he's obviously playing some incredible tennis and he's got a lot of weapons. He's got a great serve. He's got a great forehand. He looks to dictate whenever he can. So in that matchup, for me, it's all about trying to disrupt his rhythm. Not give him the chance to bully me on the court.”