Australian Open hopeful Alex de Minaur dancing in a leotard in bizarre Davis Cup initiation rite

Australian rising star Alex de Minaur has shown that he has the moves to match them on a tennis court, and now resurfaced footage has shown that his skills extend to the dance floor as well.

The 22nd seed from the Australian Open reached the fourth round and will face Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic on the show court on Monday night local time.

The highly successful matchup comes after a steady progression in recent years that has included many heroics representing Australia at Davis Cup level.

Now, in a YouTube interview for Outside the Ball, de Minaur revealed the hilarious hazing ritual the Davis Cup team put him through in 2016.

De Minaur, Matt Reid and James Duckworth took the stage in spandex leotards for a dance routine straight out of a 1980s TV aerobics show.

The boys got into the dance routine as they performed in front of tennis dignitaries, teammates and members of the Australian tennis community.

In front of a room of tennis dignitaries, de Minaur joined Davis Cup teammates Matt Reid and James Duckworth in spandex leotards as they performed a dance routine she probably wishes wasn’t filmed.

‘Oh well, as the orange guy you have to come out with something,’ he laughed.

Fortunately, De Minaur didn’t have to go it alone and he thanked Reid and Duckworth for supporting him.

“It’s your initiation and with Matt Reid and James Duckworth they thought that for my initiation it would be a great idea to go out in a leotard and do a dance routine,” she explained.

“At first I pretty much told them there was no chance I was going to do that alone.

“But they had my back, so I thought it would be fun. We all went out and had a good time, probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, but it was a fun time.

De Minaur is passionate about representing Australia and has no regrets breaking out of the dance routine as an initiation into the world of Davis Cup.

That is what the Davis Cup is. I mean it makes you do some crazy things. I never expected him to do that,’ he said.

His passion extends to the pitch and the 23-year-old was a driving force behind the Australian team’s rise to their first Davis Cup final in 2022 after a 19-year drought.

De Minaur is passionate about representing Australia and put in a strong performance at this year’s Davis Cup to lead Australia to the final for the first time in 19 years.

De Minaur and team captain Lleyton Hewitt share a hug after the young Australian star beat Marin Cilic to guide Australia to the Davis Cup final.

Jordan Thompson and de Minaur led the Australians to beat the Netherlands 2-0 to reach the semi-final before de Minaur’s heroics against 2014 US Open winner Marin Cilic to lead Australia to beat Croatia and reach the final.

With Nick Kyrgios forced to withdraw from the Australian Open with injury, the world number 24 became the country’s leading men’s hope.

He is hoping to reach the second week of the Australian Slam after advancing to the round of 16 with a dominating 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 6-1 victory over France’s Benjamin Bonzi at Rod Laver Arena.

De Minaur has emerged from the shadow of Nick Kyrgios and has reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2023

Djokovic already has nine Australian Open titles to his name, but his quest for a tenth could be hampered by a nagging hamstring injury that has plagued him throughout the tournament.

Standing in their way, however, will be former world number one Novak Djokovic, who has braved a hamstring injury to reach the fourth round in his quest for a 10th Australian Open title. De Minaur is ready.

“Ultimately, if you want to go deep and really want to take it to the best players in the world, that’s the game plan,” he said.

‘I mean, you have to step it up. It’s no secret that against the best in the world you can’t just put the ball in the court and wait for them to miss because that’s just not going to happen.