Alex de Minaur still hopes to qualify for the end-of-year ATP finals for the first time despite a hip injury that derailed his breakthrough year, as he targets a return to tennis in the European indoor season.
The Australian star made his top 10 debut in 2024, as well as three grand slam quarter-finals, but the injury he picked up at Wimbledon will sideline him until at least late October.
But de Minaur remains a chance to play in the Davis Cup knockout finals.
Alex de Minaur, with Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz at last week’s Davis Cup finals, is out until at least next month.Credit: Getty Images for ITF
He is entered in the Vienna Open, in Austria, which starts on October 21, but will play only if he has sufficiently recovered and is not at risk of doing further damage.
De Minaur sustained a cartilage tear high on his right hip and adductor longus muscle late in his fourth-round win over Frenchman Arthur Fils at Wimbledon. The Australian is completing his rehabilitation in Monaco, working on improving his range of motion and strengthening the areas around his hip.
The 25-year-old’s ranking has dropped five places from a career-high No.6 while playing only the US Open singles and Olympic doubles with Alexei Popyrin, since withdrawing before his Wimbledon quarter-final against Novak Djokovic on July 10.
De Minaur was due to compete for Team World in the Laver Cup in Berlin last month, but fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis played in his stead, while he also pulled out of the Japan Open and Shanghai Masters.
He sat out the round-robin stage of the Davis Cup finals as well, where Australia qualified second from their group – with Popyrin and Kokkinakis stepping up in singles – to earn a last-eight clash with the United States.
Australia’s Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt did not select team spearhead de Minaur in the squad for the US showdown on November 21, but can make up to four changes until that week.
Hewitt was unable to offer a timetable for de Minaur’s return after his squad’s narrow defeat to Spain in its final round-robin match two weeks ago.
De Minaur (second from eight), with Jordan Thompson, Cruz Hewitt and Thanasi Kokkinakis, was reduced to a spectator due to injury at the Davis Cup last week.Credit: Getty Images for ITF
“[We are] still working through that with him, and it’s been a tough period for him,” Hewitt said.
“You’ve got to take your hat off to him for the effort he put in [when he was] not even close to 100 per cent [at the US Open]. To make a quarter-final of a grand slam – that’s competing – so he did bloody well, and he’s going to do everything to get back as quickly as possible. But [as for a] timeframe, I’m not sure.”
De Minaur played some abbreviated matches in the Ultimate Tennis Showdown event in New York as preparation for the US Open, and managed to become the first Australian man or woman since Hewitt two decades ago to make three grand slam quarter-finals in the same season.
De Minaur said after booking his quarter-final spot at Flushing Meadows against Jack Draper that he was improving each day, but struggled physically in that clash with the Brit on September 5 and has not played since.
His increasing absences have seen him slide to eighth in the Race to Turin standings, which is based solely on this year’s results. De Minaur told this masthead in March that qualifying for the ATP’s end-of-year championships was a major goal – but only the top eight men get the privilege.
Beyond the Vienna event, the Paris Masters begins on October 28, which is the tour’s biggest tournament before Australia’s Davis Cup showdown with the US in Malaga, Spain.
The United States has chosen three top-20 stars – Fritz, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton, plus doubles specialist Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek. Australia will almost certainly face world No.1 Jannik Sinner and Italy in the semi-finals in a rematch of last year’s final if it can defeat the US.
Hewitt’s team has made the past two finals, but lost to Canada and Italy, and has not won the Davis Cup title since he was a playing member in 2003.
Lleyton Hewitt (third from right), with Matt Ebden, Jordan Thompson, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Max Purcell and Alexei Popyrin.Credit: Getty Images for ITF
Meanwhile, Guadalajara runner-up Olivia Gadecki headlines Sam Stosur’s Australian team for the Billie Jean King Cup finals, which includes Ajla Tomljanovic, Daria Saville and Ellen Perez.
Australia, who made the final in 2019 and 2022, received a bye into the quarter-finals, where they will meet either the United States or Slovakia.
The Billie Jean King Cup finals will be held between November 13 and 20.
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