Alex de Minaur revisits his embarrassing loss against Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open 2023 as he puts his revenge match at United Cup 2023 as one of his best wins.
During his post-match press conference at the Indian Wells tourney, he was asked about the best win against the Big 3. In contention was his win against Rafael Nadal at the United Cup 2023 and the victory against Novak Djokovic at the next edition of the same tournament.
The first win against Rafael Nadal was at the United Cup 2023 where he came back from being one set down to defeat the Spaniard with a 2-1 scoreline(3-6, 6-1, 7-5).
In the next edition of the United Cup, Alex was able to get his revenge against Novak Djokovic by defeating the Serb by winning two straight sets.
Alex, without hesitation, picked his win against Novak over the other by stating that it had more feeling and meaning to it. He stated that Novak had beaten him at the Australian Open in front of his home crowd and it was devastating for him.
“I’m going to go with the Novak win. It’s mainly based on the fact that I played him the year before in Australia. Again, he made me look silly on center court like I was struggling to win games,” Alex stated.
While fighting against Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open 2023, Alex had to face one of the most humiliating defeats in front of his home crowd. The Serb defeated de Minaur by winning three straight sets.
“Best-of-five match, and he absolutely diced me up on my home slam, center court in front of all the Aussies. Yeah, it was devastating. It was borderline kind of embarrassing,” Alex added.
And when he finally beat him at the United Cup the year after, it was a feeling of fulfillment that he cannot forget. This win also marked the start of a good form for the Aussie.
🎾 WHAT DID WE JUST WITNESS? 🤩
— ABC SPORT (@abcsport) January 3, 2024
🇦🇺 Aussie tennis star Alex de Minaur has defeated world #1 Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 in the #UnitedCup at Perth in the biggest win of his career. 💚💛
It breaks the 24-time grand slam singles champion's 43-match winning streak in Australian.👏 pic.twitter.com/sTdMtI7InM
“And to be able to kind of come back a year later, put all that behind me and break through that barrier, I think it’s incredibly significant for me as a human being, as a player, and just to get that self-belief. Right? I think I’m extremely proud of my efforts being able to turn, you know, that matchup around,” he concluded.
Alex went on to defend his Acapulco title and also reached the finals of the Rotterdam Open where he lost against the in-form Jannik Sinner.
Alex de Minaur matches his best result at Indian Wells, advances to the 4R
Alex de Minaur secured a spot in the Indian Wells last 16 by convincingly defeating Alexander Bublik. This marks his third consecutive entry into this stage, following his fourth-round appearances in 2021 and 2022.
Despite briefly losing a 5-3 advantage, the 10th seed bounced back, winning eight consecutive games from 5-5 to seal the victory with a score of 7-5, 6-0.
He is now destined to battle against the German prodigy Alexander Zverev. Zverev is the 6th seed coming into the tournament and has defeated Griekspoor in the round of 32 to reach the next round.
Alex will be looking to best his previous Indian Wells results and advance to the Quarter Finals.