\n<\/p>\n
In-form Alex de Minaur has brushed off a minefield draw to declare himself primed to lead Australia\u2019s 15-strong charge at the US Open in New York.<\/p>\n
Having secured a precious top-eight seeding courtesy of his 10th career title in Washington and a last-eight run in Cincinnati, De Minaur is guaranteed to avoid a higher-ranked rival until at least the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
The upbeat tennis roadrunner is unfazed about the prospect of potential first-week battles with his rivals Stefanos Tsitsipas and Hugo Gaston, who both hold dominant records over Australia\u2019s world No 8.<\/p>\n
De Minaur is more focused on getting past friend Chris O\u2019Connell in an enticing all-Aussie first-round tussle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Chris really well,\u201d De Minaur said. \u201cWe actually played in the [Australian Open] wildcard playoff, my first ever wildcard playoff when I was about 16, 17, and he absolutely bullied me on the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy from Sydney. Amazing what he\u2019s achieved, even recently, and I\u2019m expecting a battle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not expecting anything to be easy. He\u2019s a very tricky opponent because he\u2019s got a lot of different weapons and has quite a unique playing style.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Minaur has arrived at Flushing Meadows in a vastly more confident mood than last year when, grossly underdone, he defied a hip injury to drag his battered body all the way to a fourth straight grand slam quarter-final.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year there was a lot of uncertainty where I was even going to step on court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t really sure and it ended up being a pretty surreal week. Now this year I feel in a really good spot mentally, physically and ready to get going. I\u2019d much rather be a top-eight seed than just outside. It\u2019s definitely a different mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Jannik Sinner defeated Alex de Minaur in the 2025 Australian Open quarter-final.<\/span> Photograph: Vincent Thian\/AP<\/p>\n Should he live up to his seeding, De Minaur is projected to strike world No 3 Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals, with reigning champion Jannik Sinner likely awaiting in the semis.<\/p>\n Between them, Sinner and second seed Carlos Alcaraz have won the past seven slams.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Australia Sport<\/span><\/p>\n Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately right now they are the two players to beat, right? They\u2019ve shown it,\u201d De Minaur said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the challenge for us. We\u2019ve got to do our best to rise up to the challenge and take it.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, for me, it\u2019s about putting myself in the right positions, giving myself those opportunities, those chances, and if I\u2019m playing either Carlos or Jannik, it means I\u2019m in a good spot in the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n While De Minaur and O\u2019Connell don\u2019t clash until Tuesday or Wednesday (AEST), three fellow Australians feature on a light first-day schedule.<\/p>\n After a successful qualifying campaign, Destanee Aiava faces a tough test against Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini in the feature women\u2019s night match on Louis Armstrong Stadium.<\/p>\n Rinky Hijikata also plays an Italian, 32nd seed Luciano Darderi, while Jordan Thompson is up against Frenchman Corentin Moutet.<\/p>\n Men\u2019s singles<\/strong><\/p>\n Rinky Hijikata v 32-Luciano Darderi (ITA)<\/p>\n Jordan Thompson v Corentin Moutet (FRA)<\/p>\n Women\u2019s singles<\/strong><\/p>\n Destanee Aiava v 7-Jasmine Paolini (ITA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In-form Alex de Minaur has brushed off a minefield draw to declare himself primed to lead Australia\u2019s 15-strong charge at the US Open in New York. Having secured a precious top-eight seeding courtesy of his 10th career title in Washington and a last-eight run in Cincinnati, De Minaur is guaranteed to avoid a higher-ranked rival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[1215,6290,6257,3866,10423,10424,10425],"class_list":{"0":"post-17295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alex","9":"tag-draw","10":"tag-minaur","11":"tag-open","12":"tag-raring","13":"tag-tilt","14":"tag-tricky"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Australians in action on day one (Monday AEST)<\/h2>\n