Alex de Minaur was born on February 17, 1999, in Sydney, Australia. His father, Anibal de Minaur, is Uruguayan, and his mother, Esther, is Spanish. Due to his dual heritage upbringing, de Minaur speaks fluent English and Spanish. He also used to represent Spain at youth level.
At the age of just four, de Minaur started playing tennis after his mother signed him up for lessons. Despite moving to Alicante, Spain, during childhood, de Minaur maintained a love of tennis. In addition, he has credited playing in both Australia and Spain as influential on his game.
At the youth level, de Minaur won several titles and reached a high of second in the junior rankings. The Australian also showcased his ability in doubles after winning the Boys Australian Open title in 2016 alongside compatriot Blake Ellis. In his junior career, de Minaur was coached by Kerry Dock, Adolfo Gutierrez, and former Australian great Lleyton Hewitt, who has been his mentor.
After a breakthrough year in 2015 on the ATP Tour, de Minaur made his first Grand Slam qualification rounds at the 2016 Australian Open. However, he lost in the first qualifying round. The young de Minaur mostly played ITF and ATP Challenger-level events in 2016 before kicking on in 2017.
In January of that season, he reached his first-ever ATP main draw at the Brisbane International and won his first match at the Sydney International. 2017 was also the first season where de Minaur qualified for all four Grand Slams, even reaching round two at the Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
De Minaur went from strength to strength in 2018, breaking into the Top 50 for the first time and reaching the Next Gen ATP Finals final. However, the Australian eventually lost the final to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
He then reached the fourth round of the 2019 US Open before falling short at the Next Gen ATP Finals again, reaching the semi-finals before defeat to Jannik Sinner. Although 2020 was a disjointed season for de Minaur, with many top events canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it did produce one of his career highs.
At the 2020 Cincinnati Open, the Australian won the doubles title with Pablo Carreno Busta. Over the following two seasons, in 2021 and 2022, de Minaur established himself near the ATP’s top level and broke into the Top 15 for the first time.
In 2022, the Australian started to mount regular runs in the biggest competitions and reached round three or better in five of the eight ATP Masters 1000 competitions and at three Grand Slams.
More consistency followed in 2023 when de Minaur made it to his first ATP 1000 final at the Canadian Open but lost again to old foe Sinner. He also went deep at the 2023 Paris Masters before losing to Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals.
