Alex de Minaur bounced back from the depths of misery after his loss to Lorenzo Musetti by winning in a must-win match against Taylor Fritz in Turin to keep his ATP Finals hopes alive.
The Australian number one’s back-to-the-wall 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 victory over the world number six meant he advanced to the semi-final of the tournament following Carlos Alcaraz’s victory over Musetti. De Minaur will face tournament number two seed Jannik Sinner in the semi-final.
Such a scenario seemed unlikely after world number seven Minaur was left completely depressed. lose after serving for the match against local favorite Musetti, tired but inspired, on Tuesday at the Inalpi Arena.
He was the picture of misery in his post-match press conference, admitting that losing matches he felt he should have won “got to the point where mentally it was killing me”. He added that if he can’t fix the problem, “it’s going to eat me alive.”
But on Friday (AEDT), with a sympathetic crowd behind him, the 26-year-old Sydneysider showed magnificent determination to claim the two-sets-to-nil victory that was his only chance of remaining in the tournament.
It wasn’t easy. He was stuck at 4-4 and trailing 0-30 on his serve in the first set, Fritz’s big serve threatening to win the set, which would condemn him to an early exit.
Instead, he bounced back in this match, continued to dominate with a brilliant tiebreak, then asserted his supremacy in a fairly one-sided second set to finally win an ATP Finals match at the sixth attempt, after going winless on his Turin debut last year and then losing to Alcaraz and Musetti earlier this week.
After triumphing in an hour and 34 minutes, de Minaur looked skyward and shook his hand with joy before walking towards the pitch’s television camera and writing “Finally” alongside a smiling emoji on the lens.
“I’ve had quite a bit of sadness recently. It was good to – finally – get a win here in Turin,” he explained afterwards.
“It means a lot. I mean, a few days ago I was in a pretty dark place and it was a tough pill to swallow.
“So, more than anything, I’m proud of my effort, not just for my victory, but also for my mindset. I kind of make peace with that and just committed to my game from the first point to the last.
“I was going to drop everything today and ended up with a really good match from start to finish. I worked really hard, so it was nice to get a positive reward for that hard work.”
His interviewer told him he would advance to the final four if Alcaraz beat Musetti, he said: “Is that really true or not? I don’t know. I don’t trust you right now… I’ll have to see what happens.
“But hey, finally I kind of made peace today, I was able to go on the field with the mindset of not worrying about ‘what ifs?’ and just focus on what I needed to do. And it’s going to be a little more like that tonight.
“Whatever happens, happens, but I won’t pay too much attention to tennis. I’ll relax and have a good night here in Turin.”
PAA
