Opening Loss to Sinner recapped
As can be read here, Alex de Minaur dropped the opening match of the tournament to world no.1 Jannik Sinner in two straight sets 6-3, 6-4.
Medvedev All But Eliminates de Minaur
In his second match of the tournament, de Minaur faced off with Daniil Medvedev who was coming off an opening match loss to Taylor Fritz.
With both men having fallen in their openers, this match was crucial as the loser would be essentially knocked out.
Medvedev set the tone for the match from the first game as he forced a breakpoint opportunity and multiple deuces. Although he didn’t get the break, the game illustrated that he was at his best and able to threaten the de Minaur serve.
De Minaur bounced back and took Medvedev to deuce on his own serve before Daniil also held.
In the next game Medvedev made no mistake when taking advantage as he got the match's first break.
After holding serve relatively easily in the next game, Medvedev was again threatening de Minaur and broke again to go up 4-1. Medvedev would hold this lead until the end of the set to win it 6-2.
The second set was a much better showing for de Minaur as he found his serve and was holding much more convincingly. As such, the pair went into the ninth game of the set knotted at fours.
Unfortunately for de Minaur he was unable to hold and went down 5-4 before Medvedev served out the set and match, winning it 6-2, 6-4.
Fritz Knocks de Minaur Out
Following his loss to Medvedev, de Minaur’s path to the knockout stage was very difficult, but not impossible should he defeat Fritz.
De Minaur came out much stronger than he had in the previous two matches as he took the fight to Fritz early.
Knotted at three apiece in the opening set de Minaur struck. He got Fritz caught up in some long rallies and broke him to take a 4-3 lead.
Fritz would immediately break back as de Minaur suffered from a poor service game.
After exchanging holds de Minaur again broke through and took a 6-5 lead and a chance to serve out the set. He made no mistake and won the set 7-5.
The second set began with Fritz serving and barely being able to hold as he fought off a break point and four deuces.
The two men would go the next eight games exchanging holds. With Fritz up 5-4 and de Minaur serving to stay in the set, he faltered. After saving two set points he was unable to win the third as Fritz took it 6-4.
In the third and deciding set the two would go back and forth until Fritz led 2-1 with de Minaur serving. He quickly fell behind 0-40 and was unable to fight back as Fritz took the 3-1 lead.
At 30-40 in the following game de Minaur had the chance to nullify Fritz’s lead but was unable to capitalize.
At this point it was very obvious that de Minaur’s hip injury had been re-aggravated again as his movement looked hindered.
Despite gutting it out and holding the rest of his service games, de Minaur was unable to find a break as he dropped the set 6-3 and subsequently the match 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Alex de Minaur experienced the most successful season of his career and as such participated in the ATP Finals for the first time. He was unable to do damage in the tournament however as he dropped all three of his group stage matches.
