Emotional Alex de Minaur praises native Sydney after the first ATP title
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One thing that has been steady as a rock is his tennis progress from the very early days somewhere around 2003, carving his way through the junior level and catching the attention of the tennis world in 2016 when he gained 1200 positions on the ATP ranking list.
Ranked just outside the top-200, Alex kicked off 2018 with the semi-final in Brisbane and the first ATP final in Sydney, never looking back and scoring 28 ATP wins to finish just outside the top-30 and as one of the youngest players on the year-end top-100 list with Denis Shapovalov.
. Also, Alex is the youngest Sydney champion since his mentor Lleyton Hewitt in 2001 who has been with him in Sydney during the entire week.
After the match, Alex said some kind words at the trophy ceremony about his rival, box, crowd and Sydney in general, sharing that unique moment with the entire Ken Rosewall Arena a few minutes after receiving the trophy from the legendary Rosewall himself.
There is plenty of thank you I have to say, the tournament was unbelievable and it makes me come back over and over to compete here. I would like to thank my box, all my team, family and friends, it is crazy this actually happened because I thought it wouldnt.
It is third time lucky for me and it means a world to me to do it in front of all you guys, in front of my home. Thank you guys for your support whole week and all year round, theres nothing better than Sydney. I would like to congrats Andreas on a great week, he played some unbelievable tennis and I think I just got lucky today.
I dont know what to say, thank you all and have a good night.
