Demon eyes aces in spades

Aussie No.1 works on serve

ALEX de Minaur is adamant on the eve of his first-round Australian Open clash with American Tennys Sandgren that he can transform his much-scrutinised serve into a weapon.

Australia’s highest-ranked man opened the season by winning the Antalya title, before two sobering ATP Cup losses against top-15 opponents, Roberto Bautista Agut and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

De Minaur conceded serve eight times and faced 22 break points across those two matches, in a not-so-subtle reminder of one key area he needs to bridge the gap on.

At 183cm and not quite 70kg, he’s the first to admit he’s not about to morph into Nick Kyrgios – but that doesn’t mean he’s not working on making his serve better.

“It’s always kind of one of those things that’s brought up … I don’t have, I guess, the stature to come down and drop bombs, which I wish I could, trust me,” de Minaur said.

“It’s just a work in progress. I do believe I’ve made improvement, as well as in other aspects of my game. These things don’t happen overnight.

“I’m never one to let a part of my game hinder me.”

De Minaur ducked a comparison to Australian great Lleyton Hewitt, who thrived playing in a similar manner to his countryman, but opted to sacrifice his first-serve percentage for a bigger impact.

“I think I will get to a point where my serve is going to be one of my weapons,” he said.

“My serve has come a long way and I’m going to keep putting the work in (to) try to get more free points.”

The match-up with dual Australian Open quarter-finalist Sandgren is the pair’s first and will provide a genuine test for de Minaur, who’s never been past round three at Melbourne Park.

There’s also the potential villain factor, with controversy magnet Sandgren’s crowd reception something to follow.

De Minaur is particularly keen to do well, given an abdominal injury kept him out of last year’s event.

“It was a very tough time last year, having to come out here and say that I was pulling out of my home Slam. I’m very happy to be back here,” he said.

“I’m really looking forward to playing my best tennis in front of my home fans.”