Lleyton Hewitt is backing “kid in a hurry” Alex de Minaur to swiftly rebound from yet more injury despair and make another deep US Open run in New York.
Just as he hit a career-high No.6 in the world, de Minaur was forced to withdraw from a scheduled Wimbledon quarter-final showdown with Novak Djokovic and then sit out a second straight Olympic Games.
But after confirming his comeback at Flushing Meadows from a hip cartilage tear, de Minaur will line up as the 10th seed at the season’s final grand slam starting on Tuesday (AEST).
And his Davis Cup captain, idol and 2001 US Open champion has no doubt de Minaur will be a force to be reckoned with if he can survive the opening rounds.
“It’s a little bit unknown with Alex at the moment. I know he’s been doing absolutely everything in his power to get as close to 100 per cent right for the US Open,” Hewitt said.
“He was desperate to play obviously the Olympics as well in singles, and he missed out on that.
“So there’s certainly been frustration over the last four or five weeks and he’s a kid in a hurry – so he wants everything to be happening now.”
De Minaur broke through to his first grand slam quarter-final at Flushing Meadows in 2020.
Four years on and the baseline warrior has added firepower on serve and finesse at the net to transform himself into an all-court threat, as evident by reaching the last eight at the past two slams on clay at Roland Garros and grass at the All England Club.
“His game style really suits the US Open and playing at Flushing Meadows,” Hewitt said.
“So fingers crossed he gets a good draw as well and he can sort of play himself into the tournament.
“He’s getting better every practice session that he’s having over there at the moment.
“He likes playing in New York under the big lights as well. It’s a great atmosphere.
“If he can get through his first couple of rounds, then he’s certainly going to be dangerous.”
Hewitt credits de Minaur for also inspiring his countrymen and comrades as 28th-seeded Montreal Masters champion Alexei Popyrin and fellow Sydneysiders Jordan Thompson, Rinky Hijikata, James Duckworth, Chris O’Connell and Max Purcell lead a quiet revolution of Australian tennis.
Along with South Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis and late-blooming Queenslander Adam Walton, Australia have 10 players in the top 100 at a US Open for the first time since 1980.
“Australian men’s tennis is thriving,” said the former world No.1.
“The biggest thing is we’ve been pushing hard to have the right culture and I think we’ve really done that.
“The last three or four years now, we’ve tried to put in place that the right guys in Davis Cup teams as well have gone out there and led by example and that’s been a massive reason.
“And they’ve all been pushing each other along on the ATP Tour throughout the year, all getting career-high rankings as well, which is great.
“Obviously now Alex de Minaur in the top 10, so they’ve had guys to look up to as well and just see the training discipline that some of these top guys have.
“Then everyone sort of sees and says ‘Well, if they’re doing it, why can’t I go out there and have those results as well?’
“So they’ve been pushing each other.”
At least 14 Australians are in the singles main draws, with another dozen entered in qualifying and needing to win three sudden-death matches.
They’ve made a flying start, with Kim Birrell, Astra Sharma, Olivia Gadecki, Arina Rodionova, Maya Joint, Marc Polmans and Alex Bolt on Wednesday all joining Talia Gibson, Destanee Aiava, Priscilla Hon and Li Tu in the second round.
