By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, October 25, 2025
Photo credit: Erste Bank Open Facebook
The net divided pleasure and pain in Vienna.
Jannik Sinner continues to turn the tennis court into a torture chamber for Alex de Minaur.
Today, Sinner stopped a determined de Minaur 6-3, 6-4 to advance to his second Vienna final in the last three years.
The second-ranked Sinner scored his 20th consecutive indoor hard-court victory—and improved to a dominant 12-0 lifetime against de Minaur.
The 2023 Vienna champion Sinner extended his Erste Bank Open winning streak to nine matches.
Continuing his fierce finals match, Sinner surged into his eighth final in 10 tournaments this season, becoming the first man to reach eight finals in back-to-back seasons since Novak Djokovic did it in 2015-2016.
The top-seeded Italian will face either fourth-seeded compatriot Lorenzo Musetti or second-ranked German Alexander Zverev in tomorrow’s Vienna final. Sinner is undefeated against fellow Italians.
A sharp Sinner streaked through 12 of the first 14 points snatching a 3-0 lead after just eight minutes of this semifinal.
You can’t fault the tenacious de Minaur for trying to assert his aggression early—if you got 11 times in a row by a suffocating opponent, you’d be apt to flip the tactical switch, too—the challenge is Sinner strikes every shot bigger and the Aussie’s flat drives were expiring in the tape early.
Still, de Minaur always brings the fight.Â
Twenty-minutes into the match, the US Open quarterfinalist made a lunging return and Sinner slapped a backhand into net to face his first break point of the tournament. De Minaur probed that two-hander again, drawing another netted backhand to break for the first time at 1-4.Â
The ATP leader in hard-court wins this season (40), de Minaur denied break point holding for 2-4.
The early edge from Sinner faded slightly as he banged a few balls off the tape then let a de Minaur backhand pass go only to see it land on the line. Sinner overcame that lapse, and a time violation warning from strict chair umpire Fergus Murphy, holding for 5-2 after 36 minutes.
Slamming his first ace brought Sinner set point and he threw down a smash to close the 44-minute opening set. Sinner won nine of 18 points played on the de Minaur first serve and rode those two service breaks to take the set.
Crunching a crosscourt forehand, Sinner snatched triple break point in the fifth game of set two. De Minaur netted a double fault as Sinner snared the love break for 3-2.
Showing his precision on the run, de Minaur dug out some running forehands to break back and level after six games. That did not faze Sinner who scorched heavy drives down the middle handcuffing the Aussie in drawing an errant backhand to earn his second straight break for 4-3.Â
Sinner served out his eighth semifinal win of the year at love closing in 87 minutes.
