Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
A change in mindset has Alex de Minaur ready to attack the Australian Open in a fresh vein of form.
That’s the view of mentor Lleyton Hewitt after Australia’s No.1, who slipped to world No.9 and fell short of the eight-player ATP Finals, showed signs of putting his inconsistent season behind him.
The 27-year-old reached the Australian Open quarter-final and Wimbledon fourth round but made a third-round exit at Roland Garros and suffered a second-round US Open loss.
“Alex was great. He came back to Davis Cup and played in Brisbane and he had a completely different mindset and he knew some things had to change and he was prepared to do that,” Hewitt said.
“I feel like he’s playing as well as he’s played.
“There was a few small adjustments that he had to make and he was prepared to do that.”
While de Minaur made an early exit in Paris, he reached finals in Beijing and Vienna, where his run included beating world No.1 Alexander Zverev.
“He’s coming into the Australian summer in a good place,” Hewitt said.
De Minaur is famous for his work rate and gruelling pre-seasons.
“He’s going to give himself the best opportunity to play well here through the Australian summer and I’ll certainly be in his corner trying to get him as close to holding up the trophy as possible,” Hewitt said.
But de Minaur is yet to get past a quarter-final in a slam and has never beaten two-time Melbourne Park champion Jannik Sinner.
“There’s a couple of small adjustments he’s got to make but you want to keep putting yourself in that position to be playing those guys as well,” Hewitt said.
“You look at the guys that he’s really been losing to in a lot of the big tournaments, Sinner and (Carlos) Alcaraz are a couple of the main players – well not too many guys have beaten Sinner and Alcaraz in the last three or four years either.
“There’s no secret recipe and especially over five sets in grand slams, it’s even harder to beat those top players.
“It’s like trying to beat Novak, Roger (Federer), Rafa (Nadal) when they were in their prime in three out of five sets.”
Hewitt noted it wouldn’t be easy for de Minaur to become a top-four player.
“But he’s prepared to keep working, keep evolving, add a few different dimensions to his game and I think that self belief is certainly there that he’s able to do that,” he said.
“And the Australian public is really going to look forward to hopefully him doing that here in Melbourne come January.”
