For we really did worry about the Demon\u2019s demons.<\/p>\n
Like that day in May when, blank-eyed, he poured his heart out after capitulating from two sets up against Alexander Bublik at Roland Garros, lamenting how he was burned out, disenchanted and needed to walk away from tennis.<\/p>\n
Or like that crushing loss at the ATP Finals in Turin to Lorenzo Musetti, a defeat somehow conjured from the clutches of victory which convinced him to wail publicly that he was being \u201ceaten alive\u201d and \u201cmentally killed\u201d by all these disappointments.<\/p>\n
So on a dank morning in London at an end-of-year Ultimate Tennis Showdown event, what a relief to find Australia\u2019s premier player so upbeat and positive again about his 2025 travails and even more enthused by his prospects for 2026.<\/p>\n
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/a45a7c75273552c3e075c0950060b1cee74abdf1.jpg\")
Alex de Minaur has regained the smile that lit up Washington after his sole ATP title of 2025. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n
Had this perfectionist at last eased up on being so hard on himself?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s a work in progress, right?\u201d he grinned. \u201cUltimately, I wish I could say I\u2019ve fixed that, but it\u2019s a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the reason I\u2019ve been able to continuously improve is that I\u2019m so critical and hard on myself, but at the same time, sometimes I need to take a step back, realise what I have achieved, and give myself a pat on the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to realise that, as I\u2019m sitting here right now, I\u2019m No.7 in the world, my highest end-of-year ranking. I\u2019ve had my best year ever, most match wins, another title (in Washington) and was potentially two points away from finishing the year in the top five.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ll just continue to work on my goals, strive to keep improving \u2014 but at the same time, be nicer to myself!<\/p>\n
\u201c(Golfer) Scottie Scheffler expressed exactly that in a recent brilliant interview, that you work your whole career to achieve a certain goal, and you feel content and happy for a couple moments \u2014 and then you\u2019re on to the next thing; there\u2019s always more.\u201d<\/p>\n
So when de Minaur offers his verdict on 2025, he thinks it\u2019s time to smell the roses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think I\u2019ve improved, and my game has improved, as it\u2019s kept doing over the years, and I\u2019m proud of that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still aspects technically where I can get better, and we\u2019ll keep working on that, but what\u2019s going to help me make the biggest step is my mental approach. It\u2019s going to be a mindset shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that means not worrying about results as much as the way I want to play. In the big matches, I didn\u2019t play the way I wanted because I was too focused on the result, and not, I guess, on the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, that\u2019s a big shift in mindset that needs to happen for me to take the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he feels it\u2019s already begun. Two days after that cruel loss to Musetti, de Minaur\u2019s first ever win at the season-ending championships, over Taylor Fritz, felt huge.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a life-changer,\u201d he shrugs, but still perhaps the most significant victory yet in his still burgeoning career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit of an \u2018A-ha!\u2019 moment of how it\u2019s amazing what can happen when you\u2019re going to stick to your guns, stick to playing a certain way and, yeah, it doesn\u2019t matter what the result is. I was very proud of that win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next year is going to be life-changing for him.<\/p>\n
Certainly off the court as he and his British tennis star fiancee Katie Boulter tie the knot \u2014 and he, for one, won\u2019t hide he\u2019ll be relieved when the endless wedding planning is out the way.<\/p>\n
But on court? The planning, the plotting never stops. Here\u2019s a man still seeking to finally break through that glass ceiling of grand slam quarter-finals at the seventh attempt, and he reckons he\u2019d \u201clove nothing more\u201d than that happy event occurring at Melbourne Park in January.<\/p>\n
For he\u2019s still convinced \u201cI\u2019ve not reached my peak yet\u201d. He\u2019s only 26, quick as lightning, fit as a butcher\u2019s dog and as one TV commentator once noted, memorably if somewhat unflatteringly, as indestructible of spirit as a scurrying cockroach.<\/p>\n
When he looks back on those public outpourings of misery at Roland Garros and Turin, he reflects unapologetically: \u201cI just wanted to kind of speak from the heart. A lot of the time, we try to put on a brave face, try to act or say that nothing fazes us.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as tennis players, there is a lot that fazes us, right? So it\u2019s about how you handle it, how you overcome it, how you move past these things. That\u2019s what defines you.\u201d<\/p>\n
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