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Alex De Minaur has been forced to swap one of his tennis shoes during his intense straight set victory over team USA’s Taylor Fritz at the United Cup in Perth.
The Australian came off the court during the first set and quickly swapped his left shoe for an identical one, due to his laces giving way.
It was due to his heavy foot that he uses to break with so often, because of his ability to cover so much ground.
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“We’ve talked about Alex’s footspeed, it’s remarkably fast,” Jim Courier said on Nine commentary when the Australian was changing footwear.
“It puts the laces on the court, that’s when the friction gets them, That back leg … that’s the break.
This wasn’t the first time during the United Cup that De Minaur was forced to change his laces.
“He might need to look into a different material lace. That’s the second time we’ve seen it (him change shoe) this tournament,” Courier said.
“It’s just burning a hole through it.”
The 24-year-old Australian went on to demolish Fritz in straight sets (6-4, 6-2), helping his team to an early 1-0 lead over team USA.
De Minaur unpacked what went wrong with the shoes after his win.
“Remember that thing I said about running side to side non-stop? Due to that, I snap my shoelace. You can see the wear and tear,” De Minaur said.
“It is a little bit annoying, I don’t want to stop play, I’ve just got to stop running.
“We got two pairs of shoes, eight pairs of shoelaces. We’re ready for two sets, three sets or five sets.”
The win itself was one of the young star’s best, coming into the new season in scintillating fashion.
“Today was a little bit of a ‘new year, new me’. It worked out well, I was in a great headspace,” De Minaur said.
“I (have) played Taylor plenty of times, he’s got some explosive firepower, you have to not let him dictate play.
“Any small chances I had, dictate the point, doesn’t always work out, but today it did.”
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De Minaur’s slice backhand was Fritz’ kryptonite, with the world no.12 Australian able to tear the American’s game to pieces.
“Just trying to show out there that I can do a lot more … than just run side to side. Today the slice worked really well, it was a good change up,” De Minaur said.
