Alex de Minaur is through to the ATP Tour Finals semis after a drought-breaking victory over Taylor Fritz on Friday morning.
In wild scenes, de Minaur became the first Australian in 21 years to make the final four after a crazy set of circumstances unfolded in Italy.
The Australian was red hot in running away to a 7-6 (7/3) 6-3 win in his final group game in Turin.
It left de Minaur waiting for the result of the Carlos Alcaraz-Lorenzo Musetti match on Friday morning. Alcaraz delivered exactly what de Minaur needed when the Spanish superstar eliminated Musetti with a 6-4 6-1 victory.
Suddenly, with an ATP Tour Finals recod of 1-5, de Minaur is though to the final four.
It is an incredible bounce back for the “Demon”, who had somewhat choked in his earlier match against Musetti.
That brutal loss took the 26-year-old’s record at the ATP Finals to a bleak 0-5 after he failed to win a match during the group stages at the end of year event last year.
Before Friday’s victory, de Minaur had suffered 16 consecutive losses against players inside the top 10. This record does not include Laver Cup matches.
Those demons were exorcised on Friday.
After shaking hands with Fritz and celebrating on court, de Minaur’s written message on the camera lens said it all.
“Finally,” he wrote.
De Minaur had to win in straight sets in order to have any chance of making it out of the Jimmy Connors Group, and he did just that.
It is one of the biggest victories of de Minaur’s career.
Leading tennis journalist Jose Morgado wrote on X: “Wow. Alex De Minaur gets his best win of the season”.
Tennis commentator Craig Gabriel reported on X de Minaur is now up to a career-equalling high ranking of No. 6 in the world.
He is just the third Aussie to make the season-ending final four.
The only other Australians to achieve the feat are John Newcombe in 1973 and 1974 and Lleyton Hewitt in 2001, 2002 and 2004.
Hard court specialist de Minaur won his 43rd match of the season on the surface, the most on the men’s tour, and was too much for Fritz once he prevailed in the first set tie-break.
“Couple days ago was one of the toughest days I’ve had in my career. I was in a very, very dark spot. I could tell you that I hated the sport,” de Minaur told reporters.
“Here we are two days later and I’m feeling great about myself. It’s incredible.”
De Minaur revealed that personal battle after defeat to Musetti on Wednesday helped his mindset coming into the match with Fritz.
“Regardless of the result today, I had made peace with myself. That was a big, big moment. I knew the way I wanted to play. I was going to commit to it from the first point to the last,” he said.
“I was okay with the result not going my way. I had made peace with that. I just wanted to play my way.”
Defeat for Fritz in one hour and 35 minutes ended the American’s participation in this year’s edition of the prestigious end-of-season tournament.
“Today was probably the match that I’m not super happy about,” Fritz said.
“I thought the other two matches I played well, did a lot of things well that maybe I hadn’t been doing well.
“I thought the first two matches I returned exceptionally well. There’s some positives to take. Obviously, right now I feel pretty upset.”
Alcaraz is now guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals but still needs to beat Musetti to both secure first place in the group and claim the year-end number one ranking for the second time.
If Musetti beats Alcaraz and joins Jannik Sinner in the next round it will be the first time two Italians have reached the semis in the history of the tournament.
— with AFP
