Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Two-time champion Pat Rafter is imploring Alex de Minaur to ignore the outside noise and carry a boring, cliche-like “one-match-at-a-time” approach into his US Open title quest.
Rafter famously broke Australia’s 24-year title drought in New York in 1997, succeeding John Newcombe, going back-to-back with his epic victories over the great Pete Sampras and then countryman Mark Philippoussis in the ’98 final.
Now de Minaur is striving to snap Australia’s 25-year Flushing Meadows men’s hoodoo since his idol and now-Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt conquered Sampras in the 2001 title match.
The parallels are uncanny, with Rafter revealing he planned on taking de Minaur under his wing at this month’s Laver Cup in London, where he is vice-captain of Team World for the annual showdown with Team USA.
“I’ll see him over there and hopefully we’ll talk about a few things and see exactly where his head’s at,” Rafter told AAP.
“I find him a really open kid to talk to, so we’ll just see where he’s at.”
After three quarter-final showings, including the past two years, de Minaur has returned to Flushing Meadows as the sixth seed in a wide-open draw devoid of injured world No.1 Jannik Sinner.
Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, who is on the opposite side of the draw to de Minaur, is also playing his first tournament in four months after nursing a wrist injury.
Rafter, though, is urging de Minaur not to get swept up in any hype about the title being up for grabs.
“You don’t want to look that far ahead,” Rafter said ahead of de Minaur’s first-round tussle on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) against Italian qualifier Andrea Guerrieri.
“Everyone likes to do it differently. My thing was, I’d be playing the week before a tournament, but the draw would come out halfway through for the next week’s grand slam and they’d say ‘oh, this is who you play’.
“I’d say ‘stop’ because it never transpires like they say. I’ll find out who I’ll play later’.
“So just play one match at a time, don’t even look at what’s happening. You just concentrate on what you’ve got in front of you, and that’s the way I always found I played my best tennis.”
Rafter has no doubt de Minaur can challenge for the title if the baseline warrior can find his best tennis over the coming fortnight.
“I always think hardcourt and grass are his best surfaces,” said the former world No.1.
“He obviously competes well on clay because he knows what he’s doing. He reminds me a lot of Lleyton with just the depth that he has and how they can go deep into the tournaments.
“But then that hurdle of getting over quarter-finals, I think it’s more psychological for him.”
De Minaur has entrenched himself in the world’s top 10 but has yet to win any of his seven grand slam quarter-finals.
“He’s been solid for a long time, six or seven years. He wants great,” Rafter said.
“I don’t know whether or not he puts too much pressure on himself. I’m actually looking forward to spending a bit more time with him. The first time I really got to spend with him was last year at the Laver Cup and I got to know him a bit.
“He was really open, and I really liked the way his head worked and how he was able to take on new ideas, which is exciting because some people get closed off.
“This next time I want to spend a bit more time with him and just have good conversations about what he’s thinking, where he’s at and what he wants to do and what he really believes he can be.
“We can have a bit more in-depth conversation and then maybe one thing might trigger something. Maybe it doesn’t.
“So he’s got to work all that out himself.”
This AAP article was made possible by support from Tennis Australia.
