Alex De Minaur has revealed the tactical tweak he’s made to try and compete with the biggest and best players on the tour.
De Minaur was beaten by Jannik Sinner in the China Open semi-final, but he did take the World No. 2 to a decider.
The Australian has lost all 11 of his matches against Sinner, and he’s yet to beat Carlos Alcaraz in his four meetings.
De Minaur has opened up about a tactical tweak he’s made in order to try and compete with the World No. 1 and 2.
Alex De Minaur has improved his serve ahead of the Shanghai Masters
De Minaur has revealed the work he’s put into his serve in order to try and compete at the latter stages of big tournaments.
“Well, I think recently I made a couple tweaks to my serve which have played out quite well,” said the Aussie in his pre-tournament interview with the Shanghai Masters.
“I’ve been able to serve pretty well in Laver Cup and Beijing,” said De Minaur, who picked up wins against Alexander Zverev and Jakub Mensik at those tournaments.
“It’s held up quite nicely,” he added. “It’s one of the areas of my game where I definitely felt like it needed to improve, especially in big matches.”
“So far I’m quite content with how it’s been working, how it’s been going, and hopefully I can build on that.”
The star has put more power into his serve over the years, but has revealed one way in which that has ‘compromised’ his game.
Alex De Minaur reveals the one issue with his powerful serve
The World No. 7 has bulked up over the years and it’s helped him make major changes to his service game.
De Minaur revealed that his more powerful serve led to his new weapon becoming less accurate, something he’s tried desperately to change.
“I think over the last couple years, I’ve been able to really get that power and I’ve built you know, a little bit of muscle that has helped in reaching those higher speeds, but over the last couple years, I’ve compromised a bit on on that percentage, right?”
“And I’ve kind of gone back to find nice healthy percentage that that can suit my game and then, you know, build from that. I’m always going to be able to have a little bit more power, but I don’t want to have matches where I’m serving at 30 or 40%. It’s just not going to help me win tennis matches.”
De Minaur has confirmed himself as one of the top 10 best players in the world over the last two years, but he still has some way to go until he can truly rub shoulders with the big boys.
