De Minaur wins Newcombe Medal for fourth time, Barty’s haul in his sights

2 months ago 13

Alex de Minaur is fast chasing down Ash Barty’s Newcombe Medal career-haul after claiming Tennis Australia’s prized individual award for the fourth time overall and third year in a row.

Australia’s stand-out player, who is entrenched in the world’s top 10, world No.7 de Minaur was the obvious choice as this year’s Newcombe medallist after reaching a sixth career grand slam quarter-final at the US Open and boasting a final-four finish at the season-ending ATP Finals.

Alex De Minaur playing in London on Sunday, hours before he was crowned the Newcombe medallist for the fourth time in Australia.

De Minaur, 26, first entered the upper echelon of men’s tennis early last year and is banging on the door of the world’s top five. The gutsy right-hander went down to Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime in four sets in a final-eight showdown in New York in arguably his best chance to reach a debut grand slam semi.

Along with women’s world No.32 Maya Joint and adopted Australian Daria Kataskina (also ranked inside the WTA top 40), de Minaur will spearhead the local hopes at next month’s Australian Open where his nemesis, world No.2 Jannik Sinner, will be gunning for a third straight title.

Kimberly Birrell at Monday Newcombe Medal awards night.

De Minaur has been the stand-alone Newcombe Medal winner in 2023, 2024 and 2025, taking advantage of five-time champion Barty’s retirement from tennis three years ago when the then world No.1 and reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion walked away from the sport at the top of her game.

This year’s nominees for “the Newk” included men’s players Adam Walton and Tristan Schoolkate and WTA players Joint, Priscilla Hon and Kimberly Birrell, who has climbed into the world’s top 100.

De Minaur’s first Newcombe Medal came seven years ago when he shared the award with Barty as the former world No.1 began her charge on the WTA tour.

In career achievements for De Minaur this year, he showed customary resilience to book a spot in the last four of the ATP Finals in Turin last month by beating top 10 rival Taylor Fritz – his first victory at the season-ending championship.

Against the odds, de Minaur finished second behind Carlos Alcaraz in their group to quality for the semi-finals. He was only the third Australian ever to do so after John Newcombe (1973-74) and Lleyton Hewitt, the 2001 and 2002 winner and 2004 finalist.

Despite losing to Sinner in straight sets, de Minaur was rapt with his victory over Fritz to break new ground at the ATP Finals.

Cruz Hewitt (centre) with his parents Lleyton and Bec on Monday night.

“I’ve dealt with a fair bit of heartbreak recently. It was good to finally get a win,” he said last month.

“More than anything, regardless of the result today, I had made peace with myself. I was OK with the result not going my way. I just wanted to play my way. It felt good to play on my terms.

“I was gonna leave everything out there, and I ended up with a really good match from the start ’til the end. It was good to get some positive reward for that hard work.”

In other awards at Tennis Australia’s awards night, young gun Cruz Hewitt, the son of Australian legend Lleyton Hewitt, won the junior athlete of the year (male) award. Hewitt, who turns 17 this week, was pipped for the same award last year when he was beaten by Hayden Jones.

Jones’ sibling Emerson Jones, 17, was named junior athlete of the year (female), after climbing the rankings to women’s world No.150.

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