Alex de Minaur remains under injury cloud for Davis Cup finals

Slow progress recovering from a hip injury is threatening to derail Alex de Minaur’s aspirations ahead of the Australian Open next year.

Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt says Alex de Minaur is enduring a “very frustrating time” as he attempts to return for the tournament finals in Spain next month.

De Minaur has battled the effects of a cartilage tear in his right hip since July when he was forced to withdraw from a Wimbledon quarter-final against Novak Djokovic.

He played doubles at the Paris Olympics and returned for the US Open in September but fought through pain after aggravating the injury in a quarter-final loss to Jack Draper.

After reaching a career best world No.6 ranking in July, de Minaur has slipped back to nine. He would need to return to court soon to push back inside the top eight and qualify for the ATP Tour Finals in Turin that will be held the week before the Davis Cup finals.

Hewitt conceded the Australian star would need to “weigh up what’s more important” as he prioritised his preparation for the Australian Open in January.

Australian star Alex de Minaur is having a ‘very frustrating time’ recovering from his hip injury, according to Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt. Picture: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images

“(De Minaur) is still a work in progress, he’s doing everything he can at the moment over in Europe,” Hewitt said on Thursday.

“Hopefully, in the next two or three weeks we’ll have a little bit of a better idea of where he’s placed … I’m speaking to him every second day, and it’s certainly been a very frustrating time for him.

“This one has been a different case (to previous niggles), and mentally it’s been more frustrating.

“The effort he put in, in New York – for him, on one leg basically, to go out and make a quarter-final is pretty exceptional.”

Hewitt said the decision to push through the US Open had given de Minaur his chance of playing against the world’s best in Turin, but he was running out of time to return to the tour and dislodge another player from the top eight.

“The worst thing is it can be a bigger setback and hurt his Australian Open chances and the preparation going into that,” Hewitt said.

Hewitt (left) has called on Alexei Popyrin in de Minaur’s absence. Picture: Angel Martinez / Getty Images

“That’s where you’ve got to weigh up what’s more important at the moment, but I think the first thing is we’ve got to get him 100 per cent.

“He’s got too good a career ahead of him for so many years to come … he’s got to look at the future and what that holds.”

Australia reached the Davis Cup finals in September without de Minaur, as they beat Czech Republic and France to qualify from their group before losing a dead rubber to Spain.

An outspoken critic of the current Davis Cup format, Hewitt said changes to the tournament for 2025 that were announced last week had amounted to “a lot of smoke and mirrors”.

“I’ve only had a quick look over it, and I was only informed of it literally a couple of hours before it got announced to the public, but the changes aren’t ideal,” he said.

“Basically, anyone that wants to buy their way to host a final can go through the February tie or the September tie and go straight into the finals, and then there’s only seven other spots left for everyone else. I don’t think that’s on.”

Originally published as Alex de Minaur remains under injury cloud for Davis Cup finals