Alex de Minaur pinpoints the shot he’s really improved recently which has helped him progress to the Australian Open third round

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Alex de Minaur continues to carry the weight of his nation, as one of only two remaining home players in the Australian Open men’s singles draw.

De Minaur had been backed to go deep at the Australian Open after enjoying a breakout season in 2024.

The world number eight has faced little problems in his opening two matches in Melbourne, beating both Botic van de Zandschulp and Tristan Boyer in straight sets.

However, it has not all been happy for the Australian number one, with De Minaur’s new fiance Katie Boulter losing in the second round to Veronika Kudermetova.

Having enjoyed his best season last year, De Minaur has now revealed the shot that he thinks is making the biggest difference to his results.

Alex de Minaur pinpoints service improvement at Australian Open

De Minaur reached three Grand Slam quarter-finals last year, but is still yet to make that breakthrough at his home major.

Many people including Taylor Fritz have spoken about how fast De Minaur is, but it is his serve that has most noticeably improved.

This is something that De Minaur spoke about in his post-match press conference after winning his second round match at the Australian Open.

“Well, I think probably the biggest aspect has always been serve, right? Get more free points on serve, that’s been a goal for a very long time,” said De Minaur. “Yeah, higher ball speed off the ground ultimately.

“I’ve always been able to be aggressive and have that mindset. But keep reminding myself that’s the way I want to play. Kind of ultimately that’s come with work off the court, getting a little bit bigger and stronger. That’s definitely helped in those areas.”

De Minaur has managed to up the speed of his first serve by around 15 km/h in the past three years, and went onto explain the importance of maintaining the accuracy within that increased power.

“I think ultimately that was the biggest improvement of just adding 10, 15Ks on serve, and also trying to not jeopardize the accuracy, still hitting those spots,” added De Minaur.

“If I can do that, I’m going to hit those aces, have a high percentage of points won on first serve. It’s definitely going to make my life easier trying to hold serve.”

Alex de Minaur’s service improvement at the Australian Open in statistics

The statistics show the improvement in De Minaur’s serve, having increased the pace of it in the past three years.

In comparison to his previous second round matches at the Australian Open, the ace and double fault count is fairly similar.

However, De Minaur is winning a much higher percentage of points on his first serve and even more so on his second serve.

This has meant that the 25-year-old has only been broken twice in his six sets at the Australian Open so far.

De Minaur will now face a step up in opponent, as he plays 31st seed Francisco Cerundolo in the third round of the Australian Open in a first-time meeting.