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Alex de Minaur has finally ended his 2025 season after playing the UTS London Grand Final.

De Minaur won the UTS London Grand Final, securing the title at the exhibition event for the second year running.

He defeated Casper Ruud in the final, and will now enjoy a brief break before returning to training for the 2026 season.

De Minaur has some explaining to do for committing to such events, having endured another busy and indeed injury-hit season.

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Alex de Minaur highlights ‘pretty crazy’ ATP 250 issue

The Australian, currently ranked seventh on the ATP Tour, has now discussed his schedule on The Sit-Down podcast.

He said: “Just being a little bit smarter and managing the schedule. This year for example, I did not play one ATP 250 in the whole year. That is pretty crazy when you think about it.

“It is managing that, managing weeks and also just mentally, how we play certain tournaments and not adding more pressure than you need to.

“Ultimately it just goes back to the things that you love and that make you love this sport and made you fall in love with this sport.

“I have been getting a lot better at this and obviously when you are having fun, when you are switching off in the middle of tournaments and going out to have nice dinners with friends, going out for a coffee or exploring the city.

“All this adds up and helps you stay as fresh as you can for longer. Those are the couple of things that I have been doing this year.”

What do you really think about tennis exhibitions?

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Alex de Minaur explains why he plays exhibitions in the offseason

The busy and condensed calendar has drawn plenty of criticism in recent times, with WTA star Iga Swiatek calling the schedule “crazy”.

Carlos Alcaraz agrees with Swiatek about the schedule, although like De Minaur he has been committing to various exhibition events.

Asked what the value of playing in the latest UTS event was, the champion told Sky Sports: “Yeah look, ultimately a lot of people you know talk about the fact that players play exhibitions in the offseason, but for me this is my preseason, right?

“I’m training around these matches as if it was any other day, and it is a good way to get out on court and ultimately enjoy yourself, play with less stress, right?

“Because normally when you’re playing on tour, there’s a whole lot more stress going on, and this is a great way to go out there, kind of work on a couple of the things that you’ve been trying to fix and ultimately gauge how your level’s going.”

Who do you think can win a Grand Slam for the first time in 2026?

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And when asked if he’ll now have some downtime, he replied: “I’ve got probably tomorrow off. I’ve got yeah, Monday off and then Tuesday, but we’re back to work.

“I mean, the whole goal is to make sure that I’m ready to go for 2026 and I can start in my home ground hopefully with a bang. So that’s going to be the main focus.”

De Minaur is unsurprisingly looking to go far at the Australian Open, which returns to the calendar in mid-January.