Alex de Minaur is battling a recurrence of the hip injury that derailed his Wimbledon dream last year and looms as a significant threat to his hopes of competing in the ATP Tour Finals for a second straight season.

The Australian star has been in strong form in Asia but revealed when withdrawing from an exhibition in Hong Kong later this week that he used anti-inflammatory medication in order to be able to play in Shanghai last week.

The world No.7, who was beaten in a quarterfinal by resurgent former US Open winner Daniil Medvedev in the Shanghai Masters, is poised to become the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt to qualify for consecutive ATP Tour Finals.

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But the recurrence of the injury leaves the 26-year-old, who reached quarterfinals at the Australian and US Opens this year, with much to consider given the Australian summer is only three months away.

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“It’s a hip injury, the one I sustained last year after Wimbledon which sidelined me for a long time, so it is an area of concern,” de Minaur told the Tennis Majors website in Hong Kong.

“So this is something that I can’t take any chances with. Last year it sidelined me for almost three or four months, and I played the rest of the year with pain.

“Now, (there are) warning signs. I need to make sure everything is good. I don’t want to have the same problem as last year. I need to be smart and look after the body.”

SHANGHAI, CHINA – OCTOBER 10: Daniil Medvedev celebrate after winning against Alex de Minaur of Australia in the Men’s singles Quarterfinal match on day 12 of the 2025 Shanghai Rolex Masters at Qi Zhong Tennis Center on October 10, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

The Australian No.1, who pushed dual-Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner to three sets in a semi-final of the China Open earlier in October, sits in seventh position in the race for Turin, which will again host the prestigious year-ending event.

The field comprises of eight men and two emergencies, but there is no certainty that Novak Djokovic, who is third in the season race, or the ninth-placed Jack Draper will play in the lucrative week-long tournament.

The Sydney-raised Aussie is entered for a tournament in Vienna prior to the Paris Masters, which concludes the regular season, and has a points buffer of more than 1000 to the 11th-placed Casper Ruud.

He is a near lock to qualify for the top eight but is a certainty to be among the ten, which adds to the potential challenge.

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De Minaur declared he wants to be able to play the Tour finals and also the decider of the UTS event in London in early December but will undergo a scan to determine how bad the concern surrounding the hip issue is.

“I … kind of re-aggravated it and I played through Shanghai with some painkillers (and did) my best to get through but I knew that something kind of was not right,” he said.

“So I was hoping that it was just maybe one bad movement and then after a couple days it was going to feel better. But as the matches went on, as the days prolonged, it kind of was sticking around, so that’s why I need to get a scan ASAP and see what’s going on.”

Australia’s Alex de Minaur hits a return to Russia’s Daniil Medvedev during their men’s singles quarter-final match at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai on October 10, 2025. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)Source: AFP

A champion in Washington D.C at the start of the North American swing in July, de Minaur has managed a career-high 50 wins already this season. But he said there were “a lot of question marks, a lot of uncertainty” as to when he will next play.

“I think it would have been a good season (if it finishes now). Of course, I broke some of my own records. I managed to get 50 wins in a year, which is a great achievement,” he said.

“I’ve put myself in good positions again to compete for the end of the bigger tournaments. I’m currently in the top 10 so it would have been a lot of good results in this season of course.

“I would hope that it doesn’t end right here, right now, and I can still kind of continue and push for a little bit longer, but I think I’m definitely improving, developing and every year seem to be getting better and better, which is a good thing.”

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