When Alex de Minaur discovered in regards to the United Cup launching in Australia this summer time, he didn’t should suppose twice about signing up. “For me, there isn’t any better honour than to signify your nation,” the World No. 24 mentioned.
“It’s one other probability, one other alternative to do all the pieces I can to hopefully get a win for Australia. I’ll ensure I’m able to go and able to give it my all.”
De Minaur bought an early take a look at circumstances on Ken Rosewall Area throughout a apply session below the watchful eye of Tony Roche on Friday.
Australia has landed in a powerful Group D, alongside Spain and Nice Britain, for the round-robin stage of the blended group occasion. “It’s going to be nice for us to actually take a look at ourselves and have nice matches earlier than the Australian Open,” mentioned De Minaur, who gained a career-high 47 singles matches this season. It’s going to be powerful, however we like being the underdogs. Hopefully we will push one another, have one another’s backs, come out with some nice tennis and do Australia proud.”
Australia carried out strongly in group competitions throughout 2022, reaching the finals of each the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup for the primary time in virtually three a long time. De Minaur believes these outcomes show that Australia is a United Cup contender.
“(We now have) proven how powerful we’re, how a lot it means to play for Australia and the way a lot satisfaction we have now in representing the inexperienced and gold,” he mentioned. “We’d not have folks within the prime 20, however we’re nonetheless on the market making finals in each Billie Jean King Cup and the Davis Cup.”
De Minaur can be thrilled that the Australian group is competing in his start metropolis of Sydney. “I’m trying ahead to being again in Sydney, again on the courts I grew up on. It will likely be good to play in entrance of an Aussie crowd once more,” mentioned the 23-year-old.
“To get the possibility to signify our nation right here at dwelling in Australia goes to be nice. It could clearly imply so much if we will do some injury and take dwelling the title, particularly in entrance of our dwelling crowd.”
De Minaur admits there are some nerves in regards to the prospect of taking part in blended doubles. “That will undoubtedly be a brand new factor for me. I’d be probably making my debut on the blended doubles courtroom,” he defined. “Who is aware of if that may occur? We’ve bought plenty of nice choices on the group, so we’ll maintain our opponents guessing till the final second.”
No matter whether or not he’s chosen to play blended doubles or not, De Minaur is happy to affix Australia’s top-ranked ladies in a group surroundings for the primary time.
“It needs to be plenty of enjoyable,” he mentioned. “Us Aussies have a tendency to stay collectively all year long anyway. This will likely be a fair larger probability for us to have one another’s backs and actually be a tight-knit group. I believe that’s the entire foundation for a group to do properly, so we’ll undoubtedly be very sturdy within the group chemistry facet.”