{"id":828302,"date":"2026-07-28T03:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828302\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T03:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:53:14","slug":"alex-de-minaur-how-marriage-and-a-rare-tennis-break-helped-the-aussie-star-move-on-from-wimbledon-heartbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828302\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur: How marriage and a rare tennis break helped the Aussie star move on from Wimbledon heartbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Michael<\/p>\n

July 28, 2026 \u2014 11:48am<\/p>\n

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Washington: If you\u2019re feeling a touch sorry for yourself, Alex De Minaur can recommend a cure – get married.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old from Sydney wedded fellow tennis star Katie Boulter<\/a> just after Wimbledon, a tournament he exited in a disappointing round of 16 loss to Italy\u2019s Flavio Cobolli. By his own admission, De Minaur was beating himself up.<\/p>\n

\"AlexAlex de Minaur on his wedding day.Kate Julia<\/p>\n

\u201cIt breaks me inside. That\u2019s the reality of it,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cMany, many hours get put into my craft, and countless years, to have moments like these. To not step up to the plate is truly gut-wrenching.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the wedding – first an intimate ceremony in England, then a larger celebration in Tuscany, and a very brief honeymoon in Portofino – has helped cast those blues aside, and recharge the batteries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did the maths, it\u2019s probably the longest I\u2019ve ever had without touching a racquet,\u201d he says on the sidelines of the Mubadala DC Open in Washington. \u201cIt was probably about 13 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirteen days is a veritable eternity in the hectic schedule of professional tennis, which De Minaur thinks should be shortened. On Sunday, he talked about needing a break around this time of year, after the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double act and before the lead-up to the US Open.<\/p>\n

\"AlexAlex de Minaur and Katie Boulter on their wedding day.Kate Julia<\/p>\n

De Minaur doesn\u2019t regret baring his soul in the aftermath of his Wimbledon defeat, but he feels it was overblown. His raw post-match news conference, in which he seemed on the verge of tears,<\/a> received a lot of attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it was warranted, as much as – myself included – a lot of people wanted to make a big deal out of it,\u201d he says now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became a really big thing, but realistically it took me a couple of days to get over it. It was just the same feelings and emotions that any athlete has after a tough loss. Now I\u2019m feeling great.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Minaur points out that he may have suffered disappointing losses on the big stages in Paris and London, but he is now at a career high ranking of world No. 5. \u201cThat\u2019s not too shabby,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His challenge is to channel that success into mental resilience on court \u2013 as he says, to play more freely and \u201cwith a little bit less weight on my shoulders\u201d. The burden of expectation is heavy these days. Does he feel pressure to win from the Australian tennis public?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt mainly comes from myself,\u201d he says. \u201cAs you win more matches, as you get closer to the top, more and more people have opinions on you than they did 10 years ago \u2026 It just comes with the job.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Cruz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, it\u2019s a good thing. I\u2019ve earned the right for people to have opinions about myself and my tennis. Whether they\u2019re right or wrong, or whether they just want to have clickbait articles or not, that\u2019s something else. I\u2019m very chilled in my own life.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Minaur is adamant that the solution to grand slam success lies in steeling himself, not making major changes to his team. \u201cI\u2019m very happy with the team. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s their fault that I haven\u2019t performed in certain matches.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is the defending champion here in Washington, but he has a tough opening match – Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who holds a 12-1 head-to-head advantage over the Australian.<\/p>\n

Both of them showed up to an exclusive cocktail reception on Sunday night (Washington time) at Ned\u2019s Club, a private members\u2019 club near the White House that is ordinarily the preferred hangout of Trump administration types like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.<\/p>\n

Also in the Australian entourage: Lleyton Hewitt and his son Cruz Hewitt,<\/a> who is making his tour-level debut in Washington after qualifying for the main draw on Sunday when his American opponent Zachary Svajda retired hurt in the third set.<\/p>\n

The Aussies made a brief appearance at the Ned\u2019s upstairs terrace that overlooks the White House and the Washington Monument, before retiring to the private players\u2019 lounge.<\/p>\n

Presiding over the swanky party was venture capitalist Mark Ein, sometimes known as the King of Washington for his vast portfolio of business, sporting and media interests, which include the Mubadala Open and the Commanders NFL team.<\/p>\n

\"ItIt was a tough day at the office for Alex de Minaur as he exited Wimbledon.Getty Images<\/p>\n

But it was hometown hero Frances Tiafoe, or \u201cBig Foe\u201d, who stole the show. Though he is based in Florida like much of the tennis world, Tiafoe grew up in Hyattsville, just outside Washington DC.<\/p>\n

He has been known to train occasionally at the Australian ambassador\u2019s residence, it being home to Washington\u2019s only grass tennis court.<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MichaelMichael Koziol<\/a> is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 28, 2026 \u2014 11:48am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-828302","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\/828302","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=828302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}