When Alex De Minaur played Lorenzo Musetti in the second of his round robin matches at the ATP Finals, the men’s season-ending championship, he had the match on the strings of his racquet.
Australia’s No.1 player was not able to convert a break point that would have given him a 3-0 lead in the final set, nor was he able to hold serve when he served for the match at 5-4.
De Minaur’s game fell apart and with the crowd in full voice, Mussetti, who will be a father for the second time any day now, found a second wind. He chalked up a gripping three set win.
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To suggest the loss was a blow to de Minaur would not do the situation justice. He was a deer in headlights. He looked like a zombie. He was stunned, drained and feeling beyond depressed, if there is such an emotion.
He said he probably should not express how he felt as he might regret what he said but he did describe himself as being in a “dark place”. The fact that he allowed yet another match he should have won slip though his strings was hard to compute. There had been a few too many of those this year he said and it was “eating away” at him mentally.
He had lost cliff hangers and nailbiters to Alexander Bublik at Roland Garros and Paris, to Andrey Rublev in Doha, to Felix Auger Aliassime at the US Open in the quarters and now to Musetti for the second time, previously in Monte Carlo.
Not much hope was necessarily given then of him reaching the semi-finals. Only two Australians had previously made the semi-finals of the tournament – John Newcombe (1973- 74) and Lleyton Hewitt (2001-02 and 2004).
Alex de Minaur celebrates the win over Fritz. NurPhoto via Getty Images
Would de Minaur be able to post a change of attitude and emotions? Less than 48 hours before as he sat almost listless late at night at the Inalpi Arena, the feeling was it would be a very long process of resurrection to be able to get back on the bike, rather than be a case of ‘on ya bike mate’.
His last round robin match was against Taylor Fritz; last year he was runner up to Jannik Sinner and he had won the two most recent meetings with de Minaur.
The 26-year-old from Sydney who bases himself in Monte Carlo, London and Alicante, got off to a quick start with an early break and led 3-1 but in next to no time Fritz had turned that around and was up 4-3. They went to a tiebreak and de Minaur clinched that 7-3. Early breaks in the second got him flowing. He did not face a single break point, but all the Demon needed was one service break and he held on to it furiously to clinch the match 7-6(3), 6-3.
De Minaur had a match point at 5-2 and when it wasn’t converted, breath was held and even the Aussie had a look of concern. But when he capitalised on the second when he served out the match with a huge service winner, he said it was a sense of relief. To celebrate, he could not stop laughing.
De Minaur speaks after his win over Fritz. Tennis TV
How quickly things change.
“Sport,” he said with a wide grin. “Couple of 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. Here we are two days later and I’m feeling great about myself. It’s incredible.
“But more than anything, 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. I was okay with the result not going my way. I had made peace with myself. I just wanted to play my way.
“More than anything, it felt good to play on my terms.”
He made it clear his support team provided the guidance and the path for him to take out of the darkness. Every singles member which includes his fiancé Katie who sits alongside his mother Esther during the matches, were able to take some sense into him and get him “out of a very dark place”.
De Minaur suggested when you are struggling with demons, you make peace and that you start to care less. It allowed him to focus on other elements rather than the result or the progressive scoreline.
He said this was the first time in a long time that he eliminated from his mins the what ifs, the results, what happens if a shot is missed along with what happens if the match is lost.
“I just committed to the way I wanted to play from the first point to the last. A couple of days ago I didn’t. That’s what hurt so much,” De Minaur said. “Today I knew that no matter what,
I wanted to be proud of my decision making, my aggressive mindset, and I wanted to go out there and try to win the match.”
De Minaur, like any elite player, is never really satisfied with results, there is always a hunger for more. When you break down his record for 2025, what he has achieved is pretty darn outstanding.
At the time of writing, he is second only to Alcaraz for most match wins, and he has more hardcourt wins than any other man on the tour. Beating Fritz, who he lost to in exactly the same match and on exactly the same day at last year’s ATP Finals, was the first time this year he had overcome a fellow player in the top 10. The victory allowed him to equal his career best ranking of six in the live rankings.
“It will be a pretty good feeling being in the semis,” he said. “It would be nice to have another opportunity and play some more tennis here in Turin. I love Italy. I love playing here.
I just haven’t been able to get a win until today.
“No that I have got ’em started, hopefully I can keep the momentum going.”
Twenty-one years after Hewitt last made the semis of the season-ender, Alex de Minaur was confirmed as the third Australian man to achieve that when Carlos Alcaraz upended Musetti 6-4, 6-1. That result also gave Alcaraz the prestigious year-end world No.1 ranking for the second time, the last was in 2022 when he became the first teenager to achieve that.
With that a broad smile spread across Alex’s face.