But he remains polarising and de Minaur leapt at the chances to sing 'Saint Nick's' praises during an interview from hotel quarantine on the TODAY<\/em> show on Monday.<\/p>\n "Nick's one of the nicest guys out there," de Minaur said.<\/p>\n "He's that person that's always going to have your back, no matter what.<\/p>\n "I've been fortunate enough to be in Davis Cup ties with him and get to know him better and play side by side with him and he's one of those guys that has always had a lot of confidence in me and has always, from basically a junior, telling me to believe in myself and to go out there and take it.<\/p>\n "He's very misunderstood but he's one of the nicest guys out there and he'll always have your back.<\/p>\n "We're almost brothers \u2013 pretty close."<\/p>\n After winning the season opening Antalya Open, the 21-year-old de Minaur enters the Australian Open as the 23rd ranked player in the world, not far off his career best of 18.<\/p>\n The 'Demon' also had his best Grand Slam finish (quarterfinals) at the US Open last year and is in good shape after missing last year's AO with an abdominal tear.<\/p>\n "I'm hoping that 2021 can be everything that 2020 wasn't," de Minaur said.<\/p>\n "I'm looking forward to pushing myself and 2021 to be a standout year.<\/p>\n "I've started well, let's see if I can keep it going."<\/p>\n![\"Kyrgios](\"https:\/\/vms-network-images-prod.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/01\/337521\/pickerImage.jpg\")
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