Alex de Minaur is feeling strong for the big grass tournaments, Queen’s Club and Wimbledon

A cup of tea, cucumber sandwiches, a shirt too small and some joshing from his sassy girlfriend was Alex de Minaur’s day ahead of the Queen’s Club competition in London.

World number seven tennis player Alex de Minaur of Australia, at Queen's Club, London. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay.

Alex de Minaur is on a roll. He has for the first time, eclipsed his childhood idol Lleyton Hewitt in the record books.

Hewitt was the last Australian male tennis player in the top ten, being world ranked eight in 2006. But now 18 years later De Minaur is world ranked number seven, having dispatched the man who may be his doubles partner at Wimbledon, Sebastian Korda, on Sunday to win the final of the Hertogenbosch tournament in the Netherlands in straight sets.

The climb into the top ten couldn’t be more perfectly timed for de Minaur: on the eve of the Queen’s Club championship in central London, where last year he was a finalist and only beaten by Carlos Alcaraz who would then go on to win the grass court grand slam. And then there is Wimbledon itself which starts on July 1.

Much has been made that De Minaur’s long term girlfriend, British star Katie Boulter, also won on the weekend at Nottingham, making for a household double celebration, but the two haven’t yet had a chance to catch up.

Boulter’s sassiness on Twitter was to jokingly send De Minaur to the doghouse because he wasn’t courtside for her victory.

“Just let me have the limelight for once by myself geez,’’ she wrote, only to then congratulate him on Instagram by referring to Demon’s number seven world ranking.

Alex de Minaur practices at Queen's Club, London. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

Said De Minaur, 25, on Monday: “we have great banter, we rip each other, it is always lot of fun, we enjoy giving each other a little bit of stick.”

Tennis watchers have observed that the two tend to hit the highs at the same time. Last year De Minaur won a title in Acapulco on a Saturday and then without sleep jumped on a plane to get to San Diego to watch Boulter win her own second career title on the Sunday.

On Monday de Minaur was at the immaculately tended grass courts at Queen’s fresh off such a confidence boosting triumph, having a quick hit to adjust to the surface and then to face a round of interviews. The only hiccup for the day was an Australian Olympic Committee shirt which he quickly changed into for a photograph was way too small so instead he picked up the oversized aeroplane boarding pass to the Paris Olympics and smiled broadly.

He told The Australian that every year he feels stronger and quicker and after emphasising some off court work felt that finally “its all coming together, the confidence, the strength, the physicality’’.

He said that career highs never come too easily: “So there’s always a lot of work coming behind the scenes and a lot of validation as well as being able to reach that number (seven) and solidifying that spot in the top 10.’’

After the French Open where he had lost the quarterfinal to Alex Zverev, de Minaur took himself straight to a grass surface: the golf course. He said it was the “perfect recipe’’.

“I got to London and the very first day I stepped on the grass, had a hit in the morning, played golf in the afternoon and I did that for three days straight before going to Holland. And that was my prep, a lot of golf, a lot of tennis on the grass and it was a perfect recipe.’’

Currently the European continent is immersed in the European football championships and de Minaur, who had to choose between football and tennis at a young age is watching the results intently.

Does he look back with any regrets to having chosen tennis?

“That was a very long time ago and, it’s so young, right?,’’ he said. “You never know what the right decision is. But sitting where I am right now, I’m quite happy with the decision I made and I think so far has been the right one.”

De Minaur will face the 2023 Queen’s quarterfinalist Lorenzo Musetti in the first round of Queen’s on Tuesday, while other Australian’s Jordan Thompson and Rinky Hijikata have already progressed through to the second round.

Said de Minaur: “it’s great to see Australia’s strength in numbers again, like we’re just putting out a showing almost every week, just flooding, flooding tournaments.

“ There’s so many of us just competing and being able to go on a run any given week, so it’s just great to see. I’m proud to be a part of it. And you know, there’s nothing that makes me happier than seeing all these getting results.”