When Novak Djokovic fought the fight to play at the Australian Open last year, Alex de Minaur wasn't one of the players supporting him.
Last year, Djokovic's participation was one of the main talking points, and while some supported his stance, others focused more on tennis and one of those was also De Minaur. Back then, the Australian said that the situation “taken a lot of spotlight away from us competitors”, as he added:
“Look, Australians have gone through a lot. There’s no secret about that. They’ve had it very tough. They’ve done a lot of work to protect themselves and their borders. When you’re coming in, as well as every other tennis player, if you wanted to come to the country, you had to be double vaccinated. It was up to him, his choices, his judgment. Here we are."
One year later, the two met in the fourth round of the 2023 Australian Open, and the 21-time Grand Slam champion destroyed his opponent. When asked about De Minaur after the match, he said:
“I don’t have any relationship with him. I respect him as a rival, a colleague, as I respect everyone. I have no problem contacting him, congratulating him, etc. But I don’t have any other relationship. I don’t have any communication with him. He showed in 2022 what he thinks about me."