Woodbridge on De Minaur: “He’s driving a culture”
As he builds on his aura as a top-10 player, Alex de Minaur is also setting a standard in work ethic, fighting spirit and determination for others in the sport.
Melbourne, Australia, 14 January 2025 | Andrew Eichenholz, ATP
Alex de Minaur enjoyed the best season of his career in 2024, cracking the world’s top 10 and qualifying for the ATP Finals for the first time. According to Australian legend Todd Woodbridge, his countryman is beginning to build an aura for himself.
“The mentality is one of his assets,” Woodbridge told ATPTour.com. “His competitive mentality to go, ‘You’re going to have to beat me, I’m not going to give you today’s match’. That’s become an aura for him.”
De Minaur has always been known for his will and competitive spirit. As he has matured in his game and physicality, that has become even more daunting for opponents.
“He wins a lot of matches now because a lot of guys aren’t able to hang in there mentally. They’ll come at him for 15, 20, 45 minutes and he absorbs it,” Woodbridge said.
“The opponent falls over and then he’s a great momentum player. As soon as he gets that momentum, he can ride it home. He’s got these attributes that aren’t massive like a huge serve, massive forehand, but you put them together and they are a sensational package.”
Woodbridge is known for his legendary doubles partnership with Mark Woodforde, but he also was a Top 20 singles player. The Australian explained that De Minaur reminds him a bit of Michael Chang. The American won 14 of their 17 career meetings.
“He’d chase every ball down, he was in your face, he was a little terrier dog at you and if you weren’t mentally prepared for that, it was a tough day at the office for you. And that’s what he’s built. He’s built that reputation,” Woodbridge said.
“I don’t know if there’d be many other players on tour that would have that type of reputation. There’s people scared of their gamestyles, but they’re not scared of the competitive spirit, and that’s what he has.”
Like Chang, De Minaur has an indefatigable motor and every year he has found a way to further build his game. He lost eight total games in his first two matches of the season at the United Cup.
“I don’t think anyone puts in more work than him. There are guys that obviously work really hard and you don’t see everything they do. But he works as hard as anyone that I can see out on Tour. From an Australian tennis perspective, he’s driving a culture — a culture that traditionally has been in our country, he’s bringing it back,” Woodbridge said.
“It’s about hard work, discipline, good decisions, right people around you and the results. You put all those things in place and you get this career path that he’s created for himself.”
From early in his career, it was clear that De Minaur was one of the quickest players on the ATP Tour. The 25-year-old has turned that into not only an asset on a court, but a weapon to shrink the court for his opponents.
“The whole thing about his movement has got to do with him being confident that he can take on those Top 10 guys. That’s what his goal is — to get to quarters and beyond at the majors,” Woodbridge said. “What he did last year with three quarterfinals, no Aussie has done that for many years. And so the obvious next step is semis and final or win, so he has to be at his physical best.”
Although it was the best season of his career, 2024 was not easy physically for the Australian. He injured his hip at Wimbledon and did not compete again until the US Open.
“I think it was a bit of a shock to his system — and mentally to his confidence — what happened at Wimbledon. He was playing the greatest tennis of his life with a really good chance to beat Novak and get to a semi-final. And it got taken away from him by physicality, which is just what he’s relied on so much. You don’t think about it, you’re immortal at that age,” Woodbridge said.
“So it was that first time in his career where he actually had to think about his body in a different way. He’s had a strain here and there, but this was serious.
“To see him have total confidence in his movement in this tournament and then to go down to Melbourne, I think it’s massive for him for the whole year, not just at the start at the Open, but for the whole season.”
Republished with kind permission from ATPTour.com