Alex De Minaur sets sights on Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

“There’s no other way than just getting better, right? That’s what it is. You ultimately have to bridge that gap … I’ve played some very close matches over the years with both of them, and you feel like you’re getting closer and closer, and that’s what it is – you’ve got to work on your game, find new weapons.”

For de Minaur, it means getting inventive. Having never won a match against Alcaraz or Sinner from a combined 18 attempts, something has to change.

“For me, it’s finding different ways to hurt these players ™ trying to be ready to take more risks and be a little bit more of a disruptor,” he said.

“So it’s kind of a couple more things here and there that we’ve tried to work towards in my team throughout this off-season to kind of try to take that next step because that’s obviously the next goal.”

Part of that is packing on more muscle, and de Minaur has brought in a new fitness trainer to help make it happen.

“Ultimately, trying to get bigger and stronger and just keep on improving,” he said.

Despite being a little tired and jet-lagged, de Minaur was in good spirits on Sunday.

But six weeks earlier, at the ATP Finals in November, he was at his most vulnerable following a loss to Italian Lorenzo Musetti, which he described as “one of the toughest days of my career”.

Two days later, the Australian bounced back with a win against Taylor Fritz, but conceded he “hated the sport” at that moment. Speaking of that time on Sunday, he said he was glad he could be honest with himself.

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“A lot of the time I feel like us players put on a brave face, and that’s what we try to do most of the time, and sometimes certain matches they just hit differently,” he said.

“It was a way of me to just express my feelings, kind of get it out there, give myself a chance to regroup and, obviously, I was very pumped with the way I bounced back for my next match.

“I learnt about myself in those finals … I learnt from my mistakes, how I felt after the match, I made sure for the next match I wasn’t going to feel the same way and, ultimately, it’s about kind of that shift in mindset.”