Alex de Minaur is a busy man. As well as preparing for his latest shot at an elusive Grand Slam title, he is engulfed in the chaos of organising a wedding.
As the 26-year-old Australian tries to explain the challenges of arranging his upcoming nuptials to British No 2 Katie Boulter, the world No 11 comes as close to lost for words during the entirety of our conversation.
‘It’s… there are decisions to be made,’ he begins. ‘We’ve given ourselves an extra year to plan it and not be as stressed. There are times where we can focus on making decisions, other times we have to focus on tennis. It’s a balancing act, that’s for sure.’
Boulter and De Minaur have been together since 2020 and announced their engagement last December. The last time Mail Sport talked wedding planning, with Boulter in Rome, there was no date and no venue – not even a country. As De Minaur reveals, things are progressing.
‘It will be next year,’ he says. ‘We have a date, we have a country. We’re going to keep it a surprise but one thing I’ll say is it won’t be in the UK or in Oz – it’s a neutral venue!’
Will we see his fellow Aussie Nick Kyrgios on the dancefloor? ‘Oh jeez,’ De Minaur says with a laugh. ‘There’s not going to be too many people from the tennis world. We’re going for a very small number, just family.’
Alex De Minaur, ranked No 11 in the world, told Mail Sport that ‘tennis is a very lonely sport’
De Minaur (right) and British No2 Katie Boulter (left) announced their engagement late last year
The wedding was a topic on the agenda when De Minaur met Mail Sport’s Matthew Lambwell
These two have been good for each other, the relationship coinciding with high points in each of their careers.
‘Tennis is a very lonely sport,’ says De Minaur. ‘Being with Katie, being able to spend many weeks together, it doesn’t matter if we’re in France, in Italy, in the States, Asia – it still feels like home because we’ve got each other.
Alex, I think you have just written the first few lines of your wedding speech.
Tennis players are citizens of the world – or, depending on your point of view – of nowhere. De Minaur has many places which he can call home: his birthplace of Sydney; Alicante, where he moved with his family at the age of five and built his tennis game; Monaco, his official base and residence. But he and Boulter bought a house near Wimbledon in 2023 and make frequent visits to her family home in Leicestershire.
The Aussie is becoming an honorary Pom and, with his reserve and gentle humour, one has to say it suits him.
He lacks the bombast of his countrymen in the tennis world, such as enfants terrible Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic. He is what Graham Greene might have called A Quiet Australian.
Unexpectedly, for one who grew up on the sun-scorched beaches of Sydney and the Costa del Sol, what he likes most about the UK are the caprices of our weather.
‘A lot of things have changed within me from spending more time here,’ he says. ‘I learned to enjoy the sunny days. I love the attitude of the people in the UK whenever there is a good day: everyone just embraces it fully. They’re in the parks, in the pubs – it’s a special occasion. I took the sunny days for granted.’
The Australian has become an honourary Briton – at home with a pie in a pub under grey skies
But he said that being able to travel with Boulter makes him feel at home, wherever they are
Another Britishism that De Minaur has picked up from Boulter is a love of classic cars
It is appropriate at this stage of our conversation that it begins to rain, and as ground staff cover the grass we move from our courtside bench to shelter in the interior of Centre Court.
As well as the London life of parks in the sunshine, De Minaur has slipped easily into the attitude of country squire up Leicester way.
‘Snuggling up at home, putting on the fire, warm drinks,’ he says.
‘I’m loving my pies, I love going to pubs and getting chicken and leek pie or steak and ale pie’ – just a Diet Coke, though De Minaur drinks only the occasional glass of wine over dinner with Boulter. ‘Country walks with the dog, all that helps me relax, because tennis is very stressful.’
Given his burgeoning Anglophilia, it is appropriate that De Minaur’s greatest love, after Boulter of course, is that triumph of British design: the Mini Cooper. He has always loved cars, assembling quite the collection, and recently his tastes have gone from modern to classic.
‘I’ve gotten rid of everything I owned, except for one daily driver, everything else is classic cars,’ he says. ‘I love them. The green meanie (a Mini 850 Deluxe) was my first one – 1975 so it’s turning 50 years old this year.’
Will he celebrate its birthday? ‘Of course!’
Earlier this year, De Minaur added a second Mini to his collection, a blue Rover 1.3.
De Minaur and Boulter, pictured during a mixed doubles match, have been together since 2020
Playing together in 2023, De Minaur and Boulter reached the second round at Wimbledon
‘Why not another one? This one is 1992. I’ve got one from the 70s, one from the 90s. I’m just missing one from the 80s.
‘I love how quirky it is to drive a classic car, the uncertainty of whether it’s going to start or not, whether you’ve got something to fix. It’s just a raw feeling of driving as well. Going 30km per hour on the Mini it feels like you’re going at 100. It’s not about speed.’
On the court for De Minaur – it absolutely is about speed. At 6ft even and less than 11st he lacks the raw power of his rivals at the top of the game; he makes up for this by running. And running. And running.
At last year’s Wimbledon he ran himself to a standstill. As he won the final point of his match against Frenchman Arthur Fils he felt a loud crack in his hip, which robbed him of the chance to take on Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
He took a brief break from the tour but battled on through pain, desperate to reach the year-end tour finals for the first time, which he did. At the French Open last month, the man who never gives in collapsed against Alexander Bublik, admitting he was emotionally burned out. Does this all come back to that crack heard round Australia last year?
‘It probably has a lot to do with it,’ De Minaur admits. ‘It took a lot of mental energy for me to finish off the year. It’s not easy to walk on court knowing you’re not 100 per cent, or close to it.
‘Doing that for six months took a toll. It just got to a point where mentally, I needed a step back, refresh and go at it again.’
Before we go, we have to cover the third of De Minaur’s great loves: Katie, Minis – and Real Madrid.
Boulter, pictured at the Australian Open, can often be seen in the crowd watching her man
Twenty-six-year-old De Minaur also supports his partner from the stands whenever possible
De Minaur has endured a difficult season and has felt emotionally burnt out after coming back from a challenging injury
‘My mum was born in Madrid and she went to every single game,’ he explains. ‘So ever since we were little kids we just watched every game on TV and never, ever missed a beat.’
As a fluent Spanish speaker, what did he make of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s impressive speech during his unveiling?
‘Wow, that was something I did not expect,’ says De Minaur. ‘You can have a speech ready, with words that aren’t too difficult, but that was someone who speaks the language properly.’
Has he met any Madrid players?
‘I haven’t had that opportunity, that’s something I would love,’ he says. ‘My goal is to win a lot of tennis matches, because you get to the end of certain tournaments and the footballers, the celebrities start coming out.’
There is your incentive, Alex: win Wimbledon and an audience with Jude Bellingham is on the cards.
