Alex de Minaur makes admission about Katie Boulter relationship – 'It's not nice'

Alex de Minaur admitted it has been difficult balancing his Wimbledon campaign with commiserating with his fiancee Katie Boulter. British No.2 Boulter was knocked out of the tournament in the second round by Solana Sierra the day before her fiancé progressed, causing a tricky situation to manage.

Boulter took the opening set on a tie-break before slipping to a 6-7, 6-2, 6-1 defeat against the world No.101. It was a hugely disappointing result for Boulter, who is ranked No.43 in the world and was the favourite at her home Grand Slam.

It looked like it could be double disappointment in the De Minaur-Boulter household when the Australian lost the opening set to French qualifier Arthur Cazaux. But the 11th seed recovered to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 and avoid becoming one of a clutch of seeds to exit the tournament early.

After a slow start, he was delighted with his own performance, but conceded that Boulter’s result had made things difficult. “There's no real rule book that you can go on, but it's not ideal. It's not nice,” De Minaur said.

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“I felt for Katie yesterday, and I've been in those positions myself. It's not easy by any means to, yeah, forget about it. It's something that kind of stays with you.

“On my side, you know, there's obviously the part of doing my best to comfort her and try to be there for her the same way she is there for me through the good stuff and the bad stuff.

“It definitely does have a little bit of impact on yourself, and you've got to do your best to try and have a mental reset and kind of shift your focus towards yourself and realizing that you do have a match the following day that you've got to prepare for, it's not going to be an easy one, it's going to be a battle.

“So yeah, it's a lot of different aspects to deal with, which aren't easy, and I think I can get better at, but that's experience.”

De Minaur and Boulter have been an item since 2020 and got engaged in December and the Australian has enjoyed his status as an adopted Brit because of it. “I've felt an amazing shift of support the last three or four years, and spending a lot more time here in the UK, it's been quite special. It feels like I'm growing roots here,” he said.

“As I said before, I've been fortunate enough to be around the grounds in Wimbledon when the tournament is not on. I've been able to train here. I've been able to be here with Katie.

“So I've kind of been able to see the shift between it being a club into a Grand Slam. All those aspects all the way from spending some time together, being at home, knowing the location a lot better, it definitely gives you an overall better feeling as you go into this tournament.”