Hewitt: 'De Minaur set his mind on AO, he would love to face a top rival'
The youngster had a chance to learn a lot from the player who knows everything about achieving tennis glory at such a young age and one could draw a lot of similarities between the two, especially their quickness and the determination to never give up the point and do everything to extend the rally.
Alex and Lleyton had to leave Sydney without a proper celebration, heading to Melbourne where they had a practice run on Sunday, feeling the court before de Minaurs first match against Pedro Sousa on Monday. Hewitt is confident that Alex could do damage in the draw, targeting the world no.
2 Rafael Nadal as the main rival in the first week, in what could be a blockbuster third round encounter. The youngster has already shown he fears no one and he will now try to shift the momentum from Sydney to Melbourne and continue the winning streak.
He handles the limelight pretty well, . I guess in some ways people still havent seen a lot of him because he hasnt made the headlines as much as Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic and these kind of guys, even though he has been our No.
1. But he loves playing in front of a crowd. I think hes the kind of kid who likes playing on the big stage. He wont be daunted. I think he looks forward to being the center of attention. I saw that in Davis Cup.. he wanted to be put out there against the big names, he doesnt shy away from it.
He would deep down love the opportunity to come up against one of the big guys here. We dont mind the heat. Hes playing in the middle of the heat on Monday.. and his body can bounce back because of the hard work hes put in.
The balls get pretty lively in the heat too and sometimes you can get a little bit more on your shots as well. One thing for sure is hes had his mind set on the Australian Open and preparing as well as possible for this tournament so hes going to go out there and give it everything.
