You have reached a career high ranking of seven in the world, in what is the best year of you career so far.
DE MINAUR: Career highs never come too easily. There is a lot of work coming behind the scenes and a lot of validation as well being able to reach that number and kind of solidifying that spot in the top ten which has always been the goal.
What motivates you?
DE MINAUR: What motivates me is wanting to get everything out of myself; from the very first day to the last and really to be able to finish my career, sit on a couch and know that I’ve given every single ounce that I could to the sport and have no regrets.
So how much do you enjoy the challenge with what you have to do on court?
DE MINAUR: Yeah, I enjoy the challenge. I enjoy the proving people wrong; I enjoy achieving things that maybe a lot of people didn’t think I could. It’s just that whenever I get told I can’t do something, it just gives me more fire, more motivation to try and achieve it.
In that sense are you surprised at some of the results you have had, or do you feel it’s expected of yourself?
DE MINAUR: I’ve always thought I’ve had it in me to be among the best players in the world. There’s been some times I’ve lacked the belief to do it myself. In practice I know my level, my highest level has always been there, but I just haven’t been able to show it in the past against the best players in the world and it’s good that I am finally believing in myself and showing it to the people that I can actually do it week in and week out and hopefully this is just the beginning.
Are you pretty hard on yourself?
DE MINAUR: Yeah I would say I’ve always been my biggest critic and probably always will be.
Fellow Aussie John Millman who retired this year and one of your closest friends refers to his partner as the missus. Tell me about Katie Boulter your partner and other half.
DE MINAUR: Yeah, she’s great. We’ve been together for four years and it’s great to have someone who is in kind of the same workplace environment and understands those feelings and issues from one day to another we deal with and can definitely bounce off each other, feed off each other and be there for each other.
I was getting to that… How much easier doesn’t make it for you and for her to be in the same business, to be in the same line of work, to have a better understanding of what each is going through?
DE MINAUR: Yeah, it’s great because we can give each other different opinions and sometimes we see things differently and we’re open to each other’s opinions because we are both in the same world, right? So, we know the experiences, what we each need and at times if we’re struggling after a certain match or we just need to forget about that match; we therefore rely on each other, and I’ve learned a lot from her. I learned how to deal with losses a lot better since I’ve been with her. She’s given me a different perspective on results - not to be defined by results and be more focused on the process.
So, is it fair to say that she’s helped you realise to keep things more on a level, on a steady basis and not get over thrilled with a win, not get too down over a loss?
DE MINAUR: Yeah, but to be honest my whole career I’ve always been – the wins have been great but I’ve never been over the top with wins and losses I always used to take quite hard. Now it’s more of a balancing act. It just helps as well that I don’t want to be in the worst mood being with Katie especially if she’s got a match the next day. I don’t want my mood to affect her's at all. It is a good way to kind of help me snap out of it and maybe forget and move on from certain losses a lot quicker.
You and Katie have been quoted as being a “power couple”, a couple that attracts attention. How do you handle that, do you like the attention? Your lowkey normally but how do you handle this sort of the situation?
DE MINAUR: It’s definitely a little bit different to what I’ve been used to in the past. Me personally I’ve always been quite low-key and very chilled out, whether it’s now that we are together, we’re more talked about as a couple or that me winning more matches or she’s winning more matches, there is definitely more of a spotlight on the both of us. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s going to change how we are as people, we are probably going to keep on enjoying the same sort of things. As long as it doesn’t get to a point where we can’t do our normal life, we are quite comfortable and quite fine with it.
Do you see it as work, or do you see it as a hobby? How do you approach the sport?
DE MINAUR: It depends on the day. There’s parts of the sport that I love, it’s everything I ever wanted and worked so hard for but there was a lot of sacrifice. Spent a lot of hours working your tail off to achieve those milestones, those goals, so I would say the hard work, the sacrifice, sweat and tears, they’re all worth it once you get that one ounce of achievement of any part of the goals you set out to do.
Do you see yourself as being very worldly in that you have homes in so many different places, you speak three languages; how do you see yourself?
DE MINAUR: I see my experiences from a very young age have helped me mature a lot quicker than probably a normal kid would. I’ve experienced a lot, I have moved around, I had to adapt in many different ways so that helped me find perspective in different outcomes, in different positions that I’ve been in my life. It’s helped me navigate and I kind of worked through. I’m sitting at 25 years old I feel like I’ve lived a pretty long life already with a lot of different experiences that have help me shape myself into the person that I am now.
What’s the ultimate thing that you want to achieve in life? What’s your life goal?
DE MINAUR: As I said before, I want to, and this is something I will only know when I’m done with tennis, but once I’m done just to know that I’ve given everything that I possibly could to the sport and everything that I could do to get better and get the most out of myself because I don’t want to have any regrets and that’s why I’ve never been content with where I am… Whether I got my first ATP point or got top 100, or top 50, top 20 and now even top 10. I am still not content with where I am, I still want more. There will be a day, you know, where I just can’t break through that next barrier, but I’ll be content because I’ll know I would have given it everything I’ve got.
Three things I want to talk about – a dog, cars and watches. Three of your passions?
DE MINAUR: Yes. Obviously, the dog Enzo.
By the way is he named after Enzo Ferrari?
DE MINAUR: No, no he is named after a movie called The Art of Racing in the Rain. I don’t get to see Enzo too much with this world, but he stays with my mum at the moment. Then cars have always been kind of my passion especially classic and vintage ones so that’s always been part of my DNA and something that I enjoy. It’s a shame I’m not home enough to enjoy it as much as I would love to and then yeah, watches as well. I’ve got into watches probably in the last two to three years, and what kind of fascinates me about watches is the mechanical aspect of them; intricate and how sophisticated a small machine can be and I find it very interesting.
With the car, your baby as you have called it previously, it’s the Mini. It’s 50 years old, can’t you buy a new one?
DE MINAUR: I could, I could buy a new one, but it’ll never be the same. For me it’s not about the price tag on the object, it’s more about the sentimental value and what it means and how quirky it is and how it makes me feel. The Mini was my first car that I bought and yeah, it works a treat. I don’t need to replace it, any time soon.
On the watches, they’re my passion as well. Are you building up a collection and is there a specific period that you really like and is it just watches or is it clocks as well?
DE MINAUR: At this stage I’m just into watches but I’m very keen to venture into the world of vintage watches but at this stage I’ve just got more present watchers. I’m starting to build a bit of a collection. It is a world that is quite new to me so in a way I need some proper guidance, especially if I want to go into the vintage side of things. But yeah, it is another passion and I’m sure I’ll get into it because I love everything kind of vintage. It makes it cool, quirky and not seen often which is what I love.
