Alex de Minaur capped off his landmark year with a final illuminating and lucrative triumph in an all-singing, all-dancing rock’n’roll version of the sport at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) grand final in London.
Played in front of a noisy packed house at the old Olympic Copper Box Arena in east London, with lights flashing and music blaring, de Minaur seemed inspired to deliver some of his best tricks in beating Danish star Holger Rune in the final of the eight-man tournament on Sunday.
Played for four eight-minute quarters with just one serve per point and virtually no time between points, de Minaur appeared to thrive in the abbreviated version of the game as he won all five of his matches in three days.
Swearing that the format, packed with pressure points, was perfect to help him in his preparation for the Australian Open in the new year, he may also have had his head a little turned by winning a small fortune for his week’s work – a total prize pool of £625,000 ($1.2 million).
Over the three days, de Minaur beat Rune 3-1, Jan-Lennard Struff 3-1 and Alexander Bublik 3-1 in the group stage, before beating veteran Gaël Monfils 3-1 in the semi-final on Sunday, before winning even more decisively 3-0 (13-8, 14-11, 16-10) against the Dane in the final.
“It’s definitely been the best season so far, but I don’t think it’s going to be the best season of my career,” de Minaur said.
“So I want to continue to improve. I want to continue to improve and use everything I’ve learned this year to aim for 2025 and hopefully bigger and better things.”
Even though it was actually an exhibition event, de Minaur at one point retrieved his fallen racket from the back of the court and still managed to earn a point against Monfils.
It was a moment that appeared to show the Australian refreshed and pain-free after recent issues with the hip problem that has dogged him since Wimbledon.
