Alex de Minaur has revealed that he was rejected by Katie Boulter when he first asked the Brit out on a date, several years ago.
The couple started dating in March 2020 after De Minaur persisted and took another shot at asking Boulter out. They are now one of the most popular couples in the sport, and are playing some of their best tennis on their respective tours.
The Aussie recently opened up about the start of his relationship with the Brit in a chat with Tennis Channel’s Nick Monroe. Recalling the time he was turned down by Boulter, the 25-year-old said:
"Well, I guess everyone’s going to know this now… The first time I asked her out, she straight up said no. I asked her out for a coffee date, and she replied with no... That was tough to take, but being the persistent person that I am, I asked again and she said maybe. So we went with that, and here we are."
The couple recently celebrated their four-year anniversary, and the Brit commemorated the occasion with an Instagram post.
"4 years with you ♥️ (calm down not engaged 😂 just the only finger that ring fits.)", her caption read in the post dated March 21.
Boulter and De Minaur are both in Miami to participate in the second leg of the Sunshine Double. The latter, seeded ninth, is set to take on South Korea's Kwon-Soon woo in the second round. Boulter, meanwhile, will face 11th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia after getting a walkover over Brenda Fruhvirtova in the second round.
Alex de Minaur: "Katie Boulter has kind of given me a different perspective on how to take results"
Alex de Minaur also talked about how Katie Boulter has helped him change the way he deals with his on-court results, especially the negative ones.
The former World No. 9 said, via the aforementioned source:
"She’s kind of given me a different perspective on how to take results. I used to live and die by the results, but now I’ve learned to enjoy the process and everything that comes with it. Thanks to her I’ve learned to deal with these losses a little bit better.
“Plus, I don’t want to be cranky when we’re back in the room. I’ve got to sort myself out and snap out of it. She’s been a big help with that."
De Minaur recently broke into the top 10 of the men's rankings after winning his eighth singles title, which came at the Acapulco Open at the end of last month. That same weekend, Boulter won her second singles title on the WTA Tour by beating Marta Kostyuk in the final of the WTA 500 in San Diego.
The win helped the Brit break into the top 30 of the singles ranking for the first time in her career. After reaching a career-high ranking of 27 on March 4, she is now positioned at No. 30.