{"id":420980,"date":"2026-01-18T10:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420980\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T10:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:03:09","slug":"de-minaurs-australian-open-vow-need-to-be-selfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420980\/","title":{"rendered":"De Minaur’s Australian Open vow: ‘need to be selfish’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making no apologies, Alex de Minaur is pledging to unveil his selfish side as the big home hope begins his latest pursuit of Australian Open glory.<\/p>\n

De Minaur will launch his title tilt on Monday against qualifying lucky loser Mackenzie McDonald<\/a>. The 26-year-old can barely believe this is AO No.9 for him. It would have been 10 had de Minaur not missed 2021 with an abdominal tear.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty crazy that it’s already been 10 years competing in the main draw. Super excited about that,” de Minaur said. “It’s been an incredible journey. I’m definitely hoping that there’s another 10 more.<\/p>\n

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“It just feels great to be back. It feels like home.”<\/p>\n

The world No.6 has never entered a grand slam with a higher seeding and admits his elevated status “comes with a lot of perks”.<\/p>\n

“Every time I walk out there, I’m playing in front of my home crowd,” he pointed out. “That’s what makes it special and what it’s all about.”<\/p>\n

But the added spotlight also demands more of de Minaur, who admits he must prioritise his tennis above all else now the tournament is under way.<\/p>\n

“It is something that I’ve got to manage,” the people’s champion said. “Manage my energy levels of giving my time out to everyone else, but also reminding myself that I need to be selfish at times and think about myself and what’s going to help me come out and perform.<\/p>\n

“Because ultimately I’m here as a competitor to hopefully go deep at the Australian Open. That’s my priority.”<\/p>\n

After copping a seemingly devilish draw last Thursday, including a potential quarter-final against world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, de Minaur has already received a break before even taking to the court.<\/p>\n

He is opening against the world No.113 instead of former Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini<\/a>, who has withdrawn sick.<\/p>\n

Australia’s sixth seed is still refusing to take his progression for granted, focusing only on his first match against American McDonald.<\/p>\n

“Competitive-wise, I’m feeling really good,” de Minaur said. “I’m hitting the ball great. I’m physically feeling really good, so I’m excited to get started.<\/p>\n

“It’s by no means going to be easy. I’m ready for the competition.”<\/p>\n

De Minaur is among six Australians in action on day two. Aleksandar Vukic<\/a> plays Thiago Agustin Tirante<\/a>, and wildcard Jordan Thompson<\/a> also opens his campaign against an Argentine in Juan Manuel Cerundolo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the women’s singles, 17-year-old wildcard Emerson Jones<\/a> takes on fellow exciting teenage prospect, Canadian world No.17 Victoria Mboko<\/a>. Fellow wildcard Priscilla Hon<\/a> faces Canadian qualifier Marina Stakusic<\/a>, and veteran Ajla Tomljanovic<\/a> meets Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Making no apologies, Alex de Minaur is pledging to unveil his selfish side as the big home hope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-420980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420980","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=420980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}