Alex de Minaur and Leylah Fernandez Triumph in Washington DC
Locker Room
July 28, 2025
Alex de Minaur just showed the kind of fighting spirit that has made the tennis world take him to our hearts in recent years.
That quality seemed to go missing a little recently in the likeable Australian, who is engaged to Britain’s own tennis star Katie Boulter.
But what happened in Washington leads us to believe there could still be a deep run at Wimbledon in store for de Minaur next summer.
Alex de Minaur would love nothing more than to impress Katie’s family with a heroic run at Wimbledon 2026!
But for now we are all focused on the build-up to the US Open next month. And De Minaur seems to be finding his best tennis and renowned stubborn streak at just the right time.
He saved no fewer than three championship points before defeating the talented Spaniard, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3).
Fokina had absorbed the middle-set comeback from the plucky Aussie and romped to 4-1 and 5-3 leads in the decider.
A game of six deuces saw the European one point from victory time after time. But De Minaur refused to give in. And eventually he broke his opponent’s spirit.
Alejandro looked close to tears at the end. That prompted Alex to show admirable consideration instead of simple pride in his own achievement.
De Minaur said: ‘You’re a hell of a competitor. A hell of a player. No one on the tour wants to play you.
‘You’re way too good not to have one of these trophies. It’s coming for sure. You deserved it today. I just got lucky.
‘This is not the end. It’s only going up for you.’
Alex de Minaur shows what a great human being he is in victory and defeat. That’s why we can’t wait to see him at Wimbledon 2026.
And will Leylah Fernandez finally show some affinity with the grass at the All England Club next year? She has never been past the first round.
But she shone again on the hard courts in explosive style – perhaps for the first time since she reached the US Open final and lost to Emma Raducanu in 2021.
Fernandez made short work of her Citi Open final against Anna Kalinskaya – who had beaten Raducanu in the semis.
Leylah won 6-1, 6-2 to hint at another deep US Open run potentially in the making – as we soon head for the Grand Slam tension of Flushing Meadows.
But it’s not too soon to book for Wimbledon 2026!
Will you enjoy looking forward to the biggest Championships of them all, with your ticket already in the bag for London next summer?
Come and join us. We can’t wait.