After recently achieving a career-high ranking of world No. 7, sixteen years of trust were briefly tested from the baseline this week, when Alex de Minaur turned to the one person who has been by his side since he was nine years old. In a tense part of his third-round match against Cameron Norrie in Montreal, De Minaur turned to his box and asked his coach directly: 

“What should I do?” When the response came back focused on countering Norrie’s loopy forehand, De Minaur was in no mood for tactical advice. “Well you should come on court and f**king try,” he shot back. A rare sign of frustration aimed at the man who has guided nearly his entire career.

The outburst occured in the middle of what turned out to be one of the most dramatic matches of the tournament. De Minaur was in control for much of the match, winning the first set 7-5 and establishing a 5-2 lead in the second, and then he served for the match point at 40-30. He double-faulted, and Norrie sensed the opening, clawed his way back in the tie, and then took the set in the tiebreaker. 

The Australian had one more chance to close things out serving at 5-4 in the second, only to double-fault again on Norrie’s fourth break point of the game. From there, the match unraveled completely for de Minaur, with the Brit running away with the decider 6-1 to complete a 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-1 upset after two hours and 52 minutes in humid, difficult conditions. 

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“The level was so high in the first two sets. He came out firing and I had to match it. Alex stayed tough and stole that first set,” Norrie said afterwards. 

The defeat extends a trend de Minaur has admitted to struggling to close out tense matches. He came to Montreal with a career-high ranking of World No. 5 and was the third seed entering the tournament. He had remained the highest remaining seed until he also faced an exit at the hands of Norrie. The 27-year-old is still chasing his first Masters title, and the closest he came to it was at the same tournament back in 2023. 

Despite reaching seven Grand Slam quarterfinals and 11 tour-level titles in his career, that particular milestone still eludes him. With all the top seeds out of the way, he had a golden opportunity to go all the way this time, but Thursday’s collapse will do little to ease the frustration.

A coaching partnership built over a decade and a half

De Minaur’s coach, Adolfo Gutierrez, is no ordinary coach. The Spaniard has now been working with the Australian since he turned 9 years old. His family moved to Alicante, and they have been together throughout the rise from just a prospect to top 5 player. 

Alex De Minaur has previously described Gutierrez in deeply personal terms, once calling him “like my second father, like a father figure,” while Gutierrez himself has spoken about a relationship built on near-total trust rather than constant communication. 

“It’s a journey in which the connection has gradually grown without forcing it. It’s the opposite of what people might think, we don’t need to talk to each other much. Simply, when he needs it, he knows I’m here,” Gutierrez has said. 

Under Gutierrez’s guidance, De Minaur has won all 11 ATP singles titles, reached Grand Slam quarter-finals at all four majors, and climbed from as low as world No. 1,574 as a teenager to a career-high of No. 5. Their partnership has long been deemed one of the more stable and long-lasting coaching partnerships on tour, and close enough that the duo have even shared hotel rooms till quite late in the Australian’s career. 

Moments of visible frustration directed at his box are not entirely new for De Minaur, but the specific language and intensity of this exchange stood out precisely because of how solid that partnership has always appeared from the outside. 

Recently, there have been a lot of coaching changes on the ATP tour, notably Jiri Lehecka and Michal Navratil ended an eight-year partnership, Felix Auger Aliassime and his coach Fredric Fontang separated after 10 years, and Stefanos Tsitsipas and his father cum coach finally ended their lifelong journey. 

Along those lines, whether this will prove to be a passing flash of the moment or another long-time separation is going to be added to the long list of coaching changes on the ATP Tour.