Anyone who has watched UTS will know that Alex “The Demon” de Minaur is as fast as they come on the tennis court. The Aussie is known for chasing down ungettable dropshots, and prolonging rallies in the most outrageous of fashions.

But few expected him to do so well on clay, a surface that hinders his natural strength of movement and further slows down his already sedate serve.

The Aussie well and truly punched above his weight this year in Paris. Now, he’s ready for a big rest of the year after making the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros.

De Minaur hoping to run less on grass

“I sure hope I’m not running as much on the grass,” laughed De Minaur in his post-match press conference, having just lost to Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-4 on Wednesday.

“I’ll do my best to try to dictate a little bit more, and I’m hoping that my ball is going to penetrate a little bit more. But yeah, I’m excited for the grass, excited to, you know, let the surface help me out a little bit out there.

“Yeah, it’s always a great part of the season for me, which I’m always looking forward to,” the Australian continued. “Yeah, we’ll see how it goes this year, because, you know, I’ve never gone so deep here in French, so hopefully that takes a lot of momentum and confidence on to the grass.”

The Demon, who plays at UTS New York this August, shared that his Roland-Garros run has opened up his eyes to what he’s capable of in the rest of 2024.

“In a way I kind of surprised myself,” De Minaur confessed. “I showed that I’m perfectly capable. It kind of shows that, yeah, there’s no reason why I can’t put on a good showing and perform and win matches.”

Before UTS New York, the 25-year-old will be focused on putting in an equally impressive performance at Wimbledon in July.