Alex de Minaur reached the semifinals at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin last week, a very satisfying achievement considering that there was not huge optimism about him on the eve of the last ATP event of the season.
The Australian ace became the third player in the history of the 'Masters' to qualify for the penultimate act by winning only one match in the round robin after David Nalbandian (in 2006) and Kei Nishikori (in 2016). He had been defeated by world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti in his first two matches in Turin, before achieving a rather surprising victory against the American star Taylor Fritz.
The latter was considered clear favorites in their clash, because he had expressed a very high level in the previous days and had reached the final in this tournament in the 2024 edition. Alex was good at taking advantage of his opponent's bad day to win in two sets and enter the semifinals, where he had the very difficult task of defeating defending champion Jannik Sinner.
Alex is a bastion of consistency
It is not an exaggeration to say that de Minaur has unleashed one of his best performances against Sinner, but this was not enough to avoid suffering his 13th loss in as many clashes against the former world number 1.
Through his official Instagram profile, top coach Patrick Mouratoglou still wanted to praise the Australian ace's run at the ATP Finals: “He said my goal is to achieve that, I’m going to do it.’ I think he is the perfect example of how to bounce back after a loss, how to accept the pain, how to understand the mistakes, and how to reset for the next match and focus only on what he can control.”
He continued: “From devastated to playing a top performance match, Alex de Minaur is a fighter. He made peace with himself. He accepted it, he accepted that he feels that way which is great. The only thing we can do is look at the future, take the lessons, and look at the future. And that’s what he did.”
