Two days after cutting a despondent, despairing figure at the ATP Finals, Alex de Minaur has rebounded in a big way to reach the semifinals at the year-end event.
De Minaur beat Taylor Fritz in straight sets for first win in six singles matches at the event, open only to the world’s top eight men. It also marked just his second win in 12 matches against a top-10 opponent in 2025.
READ MORE: De Minaur exorcises demons to reach ATP Finals semis
The result meant that De Minaur, like Fritz and Lorenzo Musetti, finished the group stages on equal 1-2 win-loss records. De Minaur and Fritz were also equal on sets won and lost (3-4) with De Minaur ultimately progressing to the semifinals thanks to a superior games-won percentage.
The positive outcome was a far cry from how he felt after his previous match, against Musetti, during which he led 5-3 in the final set before losing four straight games.
"If I really want to be serious about taking the next step in my career, these matches, I can't lose them. I just can't,” De Minaur said after the 7-5 3-6 7-5 loss.
“More than anything it's getting to a point where mentally it's killing me."
Whether or not De Minaur listened to this week’s episode of The Tennis is unclear, but his upswing in fortunes coincided with words of encouragement from former Australian great Sam Stosur, who said his match against Fritz represented a free swing.
"It's probably no secret that he doesn't maybe have some of the huge weapons that a lot of these guys in the finals have, so he's sort of up against it in that way when he plays back-to-back guys in the top eight, top 10 all the time, which I think is showing in his record against them,” Stosur observed.
"But, he's one of them. He's in the top eight. He didn't buy his way in there; he's earned every single point and every single spot to make himself qualify for Finals and be in the top eight in the world and finish an incredible year off.”
Indeed, De Minaur has maintained his position at the top of the sport, completing a second-straight season in the top 10 and adding more silverware to his trophy cabinet, thanks to the ATP 500 title in Washington DC.
He also reached a first Australian Open quarterfinal, returned to the quarterfinal stage of the US Open, and notched more than 50 match wins this season.
And he remains alive in Turin, with a semifinal to play against reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Jannik Sinner.
Fellow podcast panellist Simon Rea agreed that De Minaur deserved to be lauded for his progress in 2025.
"I think Sam touches on a great point, because I think what she's speaking to there is perspective,” said Rea, Stosur’s former coach and now a leading data analyst at Tennis Australia.
“He is doing fantastically well. He's the envy of all of us, having the type of career that he's having at the minute.
"It's [about] taking a deep breath and reinforcing [that] there's so much that's going well here, and where can we find a couple of percent extra to go to another level again.”
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