{"id":389791,"date":"2026-01-03T22:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/389791\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T22:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:07:07","slug":"alex-de-minaur-unfazed-by-united-cup-loss-to-casper-ruud-in-australian-open-build-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/389791\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur unfazed by United Cup loss to Casper Ruud in Australian Open build-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex de Minaur is not concerned about his Australian Open preparations, believing he can “flip that switch” after recording his first career defeat to Casper Ruud.<\/p>\n

World number seven de Minaur cut a subdued figure following his 6-3, 6-3 loss to Ruud during Australia’s opening United Cup victory against Norway in Sydney.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old admitted he made uncharacteristic mistakes against the three-time grand slam finalist.<\/p>\n

De Minaur delivered eight double faults on his home court as he struggled to flaunt his second-serve prowess against world number 12 Ruud.<\/p>\n

Last season on the ATP Tour, de Minaur was second only to world number two Jannik Sinner for the highest percentage of points won on second serves.<\/p>\n

But he was well down on his average on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

“It’s not really part of my DNA to throw in so many faults,” de Minaur said.<\/p>\n

“Today, more than anything, it was just getting used to the conditions.<\/p>\n

“I struggled a little bit, playing at night a little bit heavier.<\/p>\n

“I felt like I wasn’t able to get that feeling on my serve of kicking in, which in the past I’ve had no problem doing.<\/p>\n

“I lost a little bit of rhythm, more than anything, and Casper came out playing super aggressive.”<\/p>\n

\"Storm<\/p>\n

Storm Hunter won her singles rubber against Malene Helg\u00f8. (AAP: Mark Evans)<\/p>\n

But de Minaur said he had not felt overwhelmed by Ruud, despite conceding the opening three games in under than 12 minutes.<\/p>\n

“I was in a good mindset and even after the match, I’m able to process this match correctly,” de Minaur said.<\/p>\n

“There are a couple of things that I can do better but also \u2026 it is the first match of the year.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, the season is back on, so hopefully I can flip that switch and \u2026 execute in those important moments.”<\/p>\n

After defeating Malene Helg\u00f8 6-2, 7-6 (7\/3) in the women’s singles as a last-minute replacement for Maya Joint, Storm Hunter linked up with John-Patrick Smith in the mixed doubles to snare a 2-1 win over Norway.<\/p>\n

De Minaur will look to return to form on Tuesday for Australia’s tie against Czechia.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur is not concerned about his Australian Open preparations, believing he can “flip that switch” after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[18278,64,63,6571,51612,31229,21839,85,93443,670,747,148639],"class_list":["post-389791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-open","tag-casper-ruud","tag-maya-joint","tag-norway","tag-sports","tag-storm-hunter","tag-sydney","tag-tennis","tag-united-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}