Breaking into the top 10 is hard enough. Staying there is tougher. For the first time in his career, Alex de Minaur managed to do exactly that.
It was another year of breakthroughs for ‘Demon’, and while the Grand Slam dream remained unfinished, the body of work was undeniable.
Having started the season at world No.9, De Minaur arrived fresh off his engagement to Katie Boulter, then swept both United Cup matches before reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time.
Three weeks later, he faced off against Carlos Alcaraz in the Rotterdam final and pushed himself to the ATP Masters 1000 Monte Carlo quarterfinals in April.
In the second half of the year, De Minaur captured his 10th career ATP title in Washington, reached the quarterfinals at the Canadian Masters and the US Open, notched his 300th career win and qualified for the ATP Finals for the second straight season. He closes 2025 as the player with the most hard-court victories on tour and behind only Jannik Sinner (57) and Carlos Alcaraz (70) for total wins.
“Yeah, it's been another positive season for me. Obviously, staying in the top 10, top eight, is a good achievement. I won a lot of matches this year,” he said after his semifinal loss to Sinner in Turin.
“There's still plenty to learn and grow from, plenty to improve, which I'll be looking at. Hopefully, next year will be an even better version of myself.”
While citing room for improvement, the 26-year-old didn’t hide the frustration of what could have been.
“I feel like I should have finished my Turin campaign, having won two matches instead of one, but you can't really change the past,” De Minaur said. “You've just got to do your best to learn from it, get back up, and keep on heading forward.”
The consistency was even more impressive given the circumstances. Battling through the same hip injury that forced him out of Wimbledon 2024, De Minaur scaled back when he needed to, and timed his push for the final months – a plan that delivered quarterfinals at Masters 1000s in Shanghai and Paris, plus a semifinal in Vienna.
“I still think that I've got more to give. I haven't hit my peak just yet,” he said.
“I've also got to be careful with how much I push myself and how much pressure I put on myself because that's what gets me into dark places. The desire to keep improving and wanting more … I've got to find a healthy balance.”
After several seasons of heavy scheduling, a proper off-season was due.
“'I’ve played a lot the last five or so years. Obviously, the Davis Cup has always been a huge priority in my calendar,” he said.
“It's nice to have some time to switch off. I'm going to need that because, obviously, we saw this year how I went through a tough stage. I don't want to do that in the biggest tournaments of the year.”
With his place in the top 10 secure at world No.7, the path forward is clear: recover, recharge and lean into the aggressive, high-octane tennis on which he has been building.
“For me to take the next step, it's just being fresh, not putting as much pressure on myself and ultimately stepping up in the bigger tournaments,” De Minaur said. “That's what it's going to take for me to jump from where I've been the last two years to potentially be in the top five and pushing for bigger and better things.”