“I’m intrigued to see how I adapt!” – Former UTS champion de Minaur returns to field in Oslo

Alex de Minaur returns to UTS in Oslo – the first man from the original format to have a chance to reclaim his title. (None of the other winners of the first four events have rejoined the line-up and attempted to reclaim their crown – Matteo Berrettini at UTS1, Alexander Zverev at UTS2, and Corentin Moutet at UTS3.)

Ahead of the start of the round-robin stage of the weekend, the Australian sat down to speak to Tennis Majors about his memories of winning UTS3, what breaking the Top 10 at the start of 2024 meant to him – and what girlfriend Katie Boulter thinks of his fashion sense.

Alex, welcome back to UTS. You were of course part of the initial go-round of UTS, the champion in Antwerp back in 2020 – what are your memories of it?

Yeah, it was just after COVID, so we had no crowd. The rules were a little bit different to the ones now, but I remember it was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it thoroughly and I’m looking forward to this new, updated version.

Well, you adapted to that format very quickly – you didn't lose a quarter over the weekend!

Yeah! I played some great tennis so it kind of suited my my kind of game style. I think I enjoyed the tactics side of things Yeah, it was a lot of fun because I played well as well!

Are you coming into this thinking that you've got a track record at UTS to protect, or are you treating it as something entirely new now?

As I’m getting to learn, it’s changed a lot. There’s a lot of new rules, a lot of different rules. Back when I played, there was a lot of different cards. Now there’s only one card, which is next point equals three, there’s only one serve as well. There’s a few tweaks to it that I’m very intrigued to see how I adapt to these conditions. I’m hoping it works to my advantage. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

How do you go about practising for something like UTS? You just mentioned only one serve, that must be a big thing. Is that something you've been working on?

It’s very weird! We’ve had a practice session this morning with Casper and we’ve played some match simulations. So we played quarters, eight-minute quarters; we played with one serve, we played all those same sort of rules to kind of give yourself a little bit of an idea. But ultimately you won’t know until you’re out there playing the real match.

And as you mentioned, you didn't play in front of a crowd last time either. It'll be very noisy, very rowdy, with music and everything going on.

Exactly. It’s a new environment. I’m looking forward to seeing the crowd responds, how the interaction is with the players, and look, it’s going to be a lot of fun and it’s a great event to promote that crowd engagement with sports. I’m looking forward to it.

It's a very different field you're facing this week than you did in Antwerp. Who are you most wary of in this format?

Yeah, I’m probably going to go with right now the top seed, Rublev. He’s the man to beat. Saying that I’ve got the two Frenchmen [in my group – Gael Monfils and Benoit Paire], who are truly special talents, and in this format I am sure they will be creating a lot of highlights and a lot of hotshots. I’ve got my work cut out, but hey, I’m going to try my best, I’m going to see if my focus can help me out, trying to win every single point, it’s the big advantage in this format, but we’ll just have to wait and see!

Since you were last in UTS, you've enjoyed some huge success on tour and I know you've been asked a lot about what breaking that barrier of getting into the top 10 means to you. You've had a little while to get used to the idea that this is where you're at and around now. Has it changed anything for you in terms of your mindset, or are you just carrying on that journey?

Probably one of the best things about it is that I touched [world No] 10 just for basically a week and then I’m outside of it, so the hunger is still there to go for more and really solidify my spot in the rankings. I’ve got a long year ahead of me so a lot of excitement, but it does feel good that my level is there, it’s good enough to be with these guys. I’ve just got to show week in and week out and that’s the plan.

One thing I did want to mention – after breaking the top 10, you got your first try modelling with Esquire magazine. What was that like?

That was definitely different! Something I’m not very used to, I must say. It was probably not really in my comfort zone, but in a way it was a lot of fun, it was a different side of me, something new. I came out with a lot of different looks which I never in a million years thought I would wear, but hey, you never know! If I’m going out on a date night dinner I might rock up with one of my new outfits. Katie is going to be…she’ll have a laugh, at least!

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