“I think we’ve both learned a lot from each other’s tours. Before we were together, we probably didn’t know as much. It’s been kind of fun to have those two dynamics. We bounce off each other: she gives me advice, I give her advice. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don’t. It’s all with a good heart.”
De Minaur, who will play his first round against 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic, has enjoyed a consistent start to the 2025 season, completing a box set of Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances and finishing runner-up at the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam, losing in three sets to Carlos Alcaraz. The 26-year-old arrives in Doha after losing in the Qatar ExxonMobil Open quarterfinals to Andrey Rublev in a third-set tiebreaker.
“Obviously the last one stings a little bit,” De Minaur said, smiling, “because I feel like I had my chances. It just kind of slipped away in the very end.
“But look, it’s all about putting myself in those situations, giving myself the opportunity to play a lot of matches, win a lot of matches. Hey, I’m doing the right things. I’m confident that it’s going to lead me in the right direction and help me achieve the goals I want to achieve.”
In the same quarter as No. 8 seed Arthur Fils, De Minaur could face Rublev, seeded third, in the semifinals. Safe to assume Boulter has some thoughts on how De Minaur might exact revenge in Dubai.
