Alex de Minaur will return to action after a rather lengthy rest period, having enjoyed nearly 12 days off following his last match in Shanghai.
This should come as no real surprise, given the injury scare he suffered in Beijing.
Having enjoyed an outstanding run in the Chinese capital, he faced Novak Djokovic in the final. After a hard-fought first set, which the 39-year-old won on a tiebreak, Alex de Minaur decided enough was enough.
He headed to the net for a premature handshake, and later explained that an injury meant he could not risk continuing.
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And yet, he still played and impressed in Shanghai the following week, winning two matches before exiting in the quarter-finals.
It’s left many scratching their heads regarding his fitness, and so, speaking to Tennis TV, De Minaur has finally shone some light.
Alex de Minaur provides an update on his injury ahead of the Vienna Open
He began with a simple update on his fitness, stating: “Yeah, obviously, it was unfortunate what happened in Beijing and then the kind of carryover onto the Shanghai where I tried to play the best I could, but still it was a very quick turnaround. So I couldn’t probably get to where I would have liked to be.
“And then after Shanghai, I was able to kind of have that extra week, ten days where it’s basically what the body needed. And now I’m feeling good, and I’m feeling like I’m ready to go.”
The interviewer then pondered exactly what De Minaur had been up to during his near-two-week break, to which he replied: “It’s been a little bit of everything. But ultimately, the priority was getting the body right and getting it back to full health.
“And that is something that we’ve been able to do. There’s been, you know, some rest, there’s been some rehab, there’s been some time on court, but, you know, making sure that I would be ready to finish the year strong.”
All things considered, after retiring from a final with injury, his Shanghai Masters result represented an outstanding performance.
De Minaur agreed with this sentiment, adding: “Yeah, I mean, all things, considering there was a high chance that I probably wasn’t gonna walk on court, right?
“And then kind of a lot of the stars aligned and I was able to feel better each and every day and ultimately had a pretty decent result that kind of kept my chances open for Turin.”
This definitely seems a lot more positive than when De Minaur gave his last fitness update, following his first match following that Beijing final retirement.
He will face a stern first-round task here in Vienna, with this stacked ATP 500 event drawing him against Tomas Machac to kickstart proceedings.
Then, if the 27-year-old manages to bypass the big-striking Czech, it’s expected that Learner Tien will await him next.
