{"id":358280,"date":"2024-01-08T05:51:35","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T06:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=358280"},"modified":"2024-01-08T07:01:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T07:01:46","slug":"the-online-trolls-powering-demon-to-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=358280","title":{"rendered":"The online trolls powering Demon to new heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex de Minaur revealed how his rise had been fuelled by \ufeffonline doubters after the Australian cracked the world's top 10 tennis rankings for the first time.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 24-year-old emerged as a genuine Australian Open threat by beating Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev at the United Cup in Sydney.<\/p>\n

That giant-killing run \ufeffmade de Minaur the first Australian man to be ranked in the top 10 since Lleyton Hewitt in 2006.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 Adelaide International exclusively live and free on Nine,<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and ad-free on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"De<\/p>\n

Pat Rafter and Mark Philippoussis are the only others to achieve that status since 1990.<\/p>\n

De Minaur, the quietly spoken Sydney product, told reporters on Monday that he had been spurred on by negativity on social media.<\/p>\n

He had been pigeonholed by some critics as an admirable top 20 fighter rather than a genuine grand slam contender.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Devastating blow' as Kerr ruptures ACL\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> How Smith bombshell changed post-Warner battle<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aus Open suffers massive blow as Nadal withdraws<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1744162024622309573?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"Look, everyone's going to have their opinion," the 'Demon' said.<\/p>\n

"It's the way it is. Some people feel entitled to voice their opinions, and they believe that their opinions have a lot of merit.<\/p>\n

"But at the end of the day, what happens with me is I see all these things, I see all the reasons why I'm not going to be a good player (on social media), I'm not going to make it, I'm not going to improve, and I store it in the back of my head and use it as my motivation. Ultimately it's my drive that has put me in this position, and the fact that I want to get the absolute most out of myself.<\/p>\n

\"De<\/p>\n

"This last week has helped my record significantly against top 10 opponents, right? I've shown that I've been able to do it, back it up, and in two different cities. It's a great feeling. I'm really happy with how 2024 is going, and hopefully I can keep it going."<\/p>\n

Zverev, the world No.6 who powered Germany to United Cup glory on Sunday, described de Minaur as a "very dangerous" opponent after falling 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 the day before.<\/p>\n

"I feel this is the best Alex has played against me," Zverev said.<\/p>\n

\"Zverev<\/p>\n

"Probably he has played great matches in his career, but against me, from what I can judge, it was the best match that he's played.<\/p>\n

"Usually he's taking his backhand super, super early. He always did that in his career – he's changing a lot (in) direction. But he did exactly the same with his forehand today. His forehand has always been probably the shakier shot, and today it wasn't – it was the better shot.<\/p>\n

"That surprised me, and his serve surprised me. His second serve especially surprised me. It was going 160-165km\/h, which never used to be the case. His second serve was always kind of a weak spot.<\/p>\n

"He played amazing. He beat Novak in straight sets a few days ago. He beat me today. He's in very good form, and he's very dangerous at the moment."<\/p>\n

De Minaur told the Nine's Today<\/em> that it had been an \ufeff"unbelievable start to the year" and cracking the top 10 had been a "lifetime goal".<\/p>\n

"So, I'm extremely stoked that I was able to kind of get it done, but at the same time it's it's not over yet," he said.<\/p>\n

"It's all about trying to keep on improving, trying to put myself in the best position, and hopefully I can put my best step forward for the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1744237547947962370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"It is special every time I step out on court having all that crowd support, all those people behind me, all those Aussies, and I just cherish every single moment of it. So I'll do my best to get the crowd fired up.<\/p>\n

"I'm in a positive mindset. I'm being aggressive. I'm enjoying the moment and I'm just trying to take it easy out there."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex de Minaur revealed how his rise had been fuelled by \ufeffonline doubters after the Australian cracked the world's top 10 tennis rankings for the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":357859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=358280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358285,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358280\/revisions\/358285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/357859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=358280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}