Carlos Alcaraz got his 2025 ATP Finals campaign off to the perfect start yesterday, as he battled past Alex de Minaur to win in straight sets.
It marked a fifth straight victory for the Spaniard over the world number seven, who is yet to claim a career victory over the mercurial youngster.
However, he certainly looked like he had made progress on that front, having led throughout the first set yet somehow conspired to lose it.
Speaking afterwards, Alex de Minaur sought to explain the manner of his eventual defeat, naturally lauding the at times unstoppable quality of Carlos Alcaraz.
Alex de Minaur rates Carlos Alcaraz’s level during their ATP Finals match
He would tell the press: “Yeah, I mean, realistically it was a little bit of what I did today. I mean, I know at times Carlos is going to be unplayable. There’s also times that if you can hang in there, you get a couple chances here and there, and you just got to take ’em, right?
“I think that was what the first set was all about. I was 4-1, Love-40 down in the space of moments without really doing too much wrong. I managed to kind of keep my head down, keep fighting, find a way to break through. Then all of a sudden we were in a match.
“5-3 up in the tiebreak… 5-4, two serves… Like, again, they’re chances, they’re moments that you’ve got to take against the best players in the world. Today I didn’t take that moment and then the match became a very difficult one.”
Asked if he gets frustrated facing a player like Alcaraz, De Minaur added: “Yeah, I mean, the frustration comes when you walk off the court and you talk with your team about it, about how the points were played out, what could have been done better. At times, he came up with some extraordinary stuff, especially when he was down.
“The only thing I can say from my side is 5-4, serving for it, I played those two points with second serves, right? That’s when the big difference is. If I land a first serve, I play with first serves, all of a sudden I’m dictating in the point, right? I felt like I was doing the right things.
“Yeah, I mean, I did my best not to let it affect me because, as I know, I’ve played him many, many times. There’s chances, right? There’s moments where he sometimes drops his level.
“Today in the second set he played pretty flawless, in my eyes, and made it very difficult for me to hang on with him.”
Alcaraz did admit he was surprised by the conditions in Turin, also speaking after his win.
Carlos Alcaraz is just two wins away from beating Jannik Sinner to the year-end world number one
At the start of the event, it was always clear what Alcaraz had to do to ensure he finished 2025 as the year-end number one.
The power has always been in his hands.
Were he to go unbeaten throughout his round robin group stage, that would have been enough. Having won his opener against De Minaur, he now just needs to defeat Taylor Fritz and Lorenzo Musetti to accomplish that feat.
However, should he lose one of those, then he simply must reach the final of the ATP Finals to put the result beyond a reasonable doubt.
Given the way in which he ruthlessly dispatched the Australian though, particularly in the second set, it seems unlikely that many will be able to halt his charge to keep the world number one spot.
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