A devastated Alex de Minaur says he will seek daily treatment on an abdominal injury in the hope of playing in the Australian Open starting next week after Australia’s top-ranked player withdrew from the Adelaide International, which was to have been his final preparation for the Open.
De Minaur has stopped short of declaring himself a certain starter in Melbourne. “At the moment we’re going to take it day by day,” he told reporters in Adelaide on Monday. “It’s something that is not ideal. And at this stage we are just looking at short-term goals and trying to get better each day [with] a lot of treatment.
“I have seen the physios, I have seen the doctors, and I will be continuing to do that for the whole of the week and hopefully I will be ready to play in Melbourne.”
The flare up of the injury comes after de Minaur played five matches over nine days at the ATP Cup, which included a doubles encounter. The 20-year-old, the top seed at the Adelaide International after last week’s withdrawal of world No 2 Novak Djokovic, said he was “devastated” to pull out of the tournament.
“Obviously I am not in the happiest mood,” de Minaur said. “But it’s something that happens … I have just got to do whatever I can to make sure my body recovers. And right now my sole focus in on making sure I recover for my next one [tournament].”
At the ATP Cup, de Minaur won two singles matches and pushed world No 1 Rafael Nadal to three sets in Australia’s semi-final loss to Spain last Saturday night in Sydney.
“I have often been told that I don’t have the weapons to beat these higher-level guys,” he said. “But I think I have sort of showed that I have got another part of my game that I can go to. Just overall, mentally, physically, it’s just a constant work in progress and I’m going to keep on improving and keep on getting better and hopefully keep on breaking barriers.”
Despite his strong showing at the ATP Cup, de Minaur will suffer a rankings drop before the Australian Open. He is now No 21 in the world, down three spots, because he did not defend all the points accrued from his Sydney International win from last year.
At the Open, being seeded 20th due to the withdrawal of Kei Nishikori, the local hope could face a top-10 rival as early as round three.