The feeling is mutual and the fluent Spanish speaker's popularity there was clear after beating Austria's Sebastian Ofner 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 in the opening round of the Barcelona Open on Tuesday.
However, the Australian No.1 has yet to reach a final in either Madrid or Barcelona with a 2022 semi-final at the latter his best performance.
There was enough promise in his straight sets win over the 86-ranked qualifier to suggest that de Minaur, who is seeded three in Catalonia, should at least match that this year.
But if the tournament goes to seeding he will then face Carlos Alcaraz, the world No.2, who has beaten de Minaur six times in six matches, including in Barcelona in 2022 and 2025.
Alcaraz swatted aside Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen 6-4 6-2 on Tuesday and now mets Tomas Machac who beat Sebastian Baez 2-6 6-4 6-1.
First de Minaur must beat another qualifier, Hamad Nedjedovic, the 88-ranked Serb he defeated in the opening round of the Australian Open this year.
Either Portugal's Nuno Borges or Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry would be next.
De Minaur was briefly in trouble against Ofner, facing a break point in the eighth game, but saved that with a precise and powerful backhand down the line.
After a lengthy tie-break he took the set and subsequently the match following an early break in the second set.
Elsewhere fourth seed Karen Khachanov proved less resilient, going down 6-3 6-4 to Argentina's world No.64 Camilo Ugo Carabelli but there was no such problem for second seed Lorenzo Musetti who beat wildcard Martin Landaluce 7-5 6-2.
Fifth seed Andrey Rublev beat Mariano Navone 6-4 7-5 and next plays Lorenzo Sonego, who defeated qualifier Pedro Martinez 6-2 2-6 6-4. Brandon Nakashima and Arthur Fils also progressed.
In Germany defending champion Alexander Zverev had to fight hard to see off Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-2) in the first round of the Munich Open.
Zverev needed two hours 18 minutes to prevail, suffering from the cool weather which he said led to slow conditions which made it difficult to hit winners.
World No.3 Zverev, who now faces Canada's Gabriel Diallo, is aiming for a record fourth title in Munich, his lone success last year.
Third seed Alexander Bublik was surprised by qualifier Alex Molcan 6-4 6-2, while No.8 seed Tallon Griekspoor was upset by Denis Shapovalov 6-4 3-6 6-2.
There were wins for Flavio Cobolli, Daniel Altmaier, Luciano Darderi, Zizou Bergs, Vit Kopriva and Joao Fonseca.
No Australians are playing in Munich.
12°C