By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, November 13, 2025
Photo: Shi Tang/Getty
Inalpi Arena was a haunted house for him Alex de Minaur.
Winless in his previous five ATP Finals appearances, de Minaur candidly admitted that those painful losses were on the verge of cannibalizing his competitive spirit.
Today, a determined de Minaur killed the demons of doubt and knocked Taylor Fritz out of Turin with a lively 7-6(3), 6-3 win.
It’s a remarkable 48-hour comeback for de Minaur, who failed to serve out against Lorenzo Musett in a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 defeat after holding a 5-3, 30-15 lead in the decider on Tuesday night.
The devastating defeat sent the fiery Aussie into dark places, leading de Minaur to reveal that “it’s getting to a point where mentally it’s killing me”.
Today, the man nicknamed Demon showed renewed life after near death by running. De Minaur raised his 2025 record to 56-23, including an ATP best 43-16 on hard courts.
Alex De Minaur, who is CLUTCH 🙌
A 7-6 6-3 win over Fritz keeps his #NittoATPFinals dream alive! pic.twitter.com/gqSzJmWQu5
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 13, 2025
“Obviously coming off a heartbreaker just a few days ago, I went into the match today with my tactics,” de Minaur said. Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj afterwards. “I was going to live and die by the sword. I was going to play my tennis, my style of play and I knew that was the only way.
“I’m glad I was able to get some positive reinforcement for a long year and also a lot of difficulty in this particular tournament.”
Talk about incredible resilience: It’s de Minaur’s first career ATP Finals match win, keeping his semifinal hopes alive.
If top seed Carlos Alcaraz, who has already clinched his semi-final spot in the Jimmy Connors Group, beats Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti later today, then de Minaur will join both Alcaraz and Bjorn Borg Group champion Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals. De Minaur would join Hall of Famers John Newcombe and Lleyton Hewitt, his Davis Cup captain, as the third Austrian semifinalist in ATP Finals history.
If ninth-seeded Musetti upsets Alcaraz, then the last man to qualify for these ATP Finals will advance to the semifinals, giving Italy two out of four finals for the first time in ATP Finals history.
By turning his shoulders to his shots, de Minaur actually served up one of the sport’s biggest servers in Fritz. De Minaur won 30 of 36 first-serve points, faced just one break point and rallied from Love-30 down in the final game on the strength of an ace, a serve-and-volley and a winner wide.
When the pressure and self-doubt came to hunt the Demon in that final match, the tough Austrian counter-puncher bravely beat those trespassers with a final forward kick.
“It’s probably one of the darkest periods I’ve had in my career, isn’t it,” de Minaur said. “Some people might think I’m exaggerating, but you know there’s a lot going on in this head of mine.
“I’m a perfectionist. I demand a lot from myself and sometimes that’s one of my biggest downfalls. So it’s just a moment to feel good. Whatever happens, I went into the match today with a clear mind. I just wanted to go out there and play on my own terms and just forget about the results for a while. And hey, look at this: I played some really good tennis.”
Spare a thought for Fritz, who looked physically flush after falling to Alcaraz 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-3 in a punishing two-hour, 48-minute marathon match on Tuesday. After that defeat, Fritz admitted that tendinitis left his odd knee feeling “completely cooked”.
Facing one of the sport’s fastest players in de Minaur wasn’t exactly a cure for knee pain. The flat-hitting demon had the 6’4″ Fritz stooping repeatedly to clear high shots from Torino’s fast court. Fritz looked a half-step slow to the ball in the first set when his fiery arm betrayed his cause with a series of errors from that arm. semifinal for the first time in three appearances.
The loss eliminates 2024 finalist Fritz from semifinal contention and puts the No. 1 of the American year-end, although Ben Shelton, winless in his two round matches, will have to beat Wimbledon winner Sinner to pass Fritz for the top spot in American tennis.
Knowing he needed a straight-set win, de Minaur started quickly, capitalizing on three Fritz errors to break for 2-1. De Minaur backed the break at 30 for 3-1.
Gradually finding his range, Fritz sent a shock return right down the middle breaking at 15 and sparking a run that saw him win eight of nine points to level the set at 3-all.
Facing break point in the 5th, Fritz hit an ace out. This big shot helped him hold on 6-5.
When de Minaur slid a flat pass down the line, it forced the first-set tiebreaker.
In a foreboding sign, Fritz waved to give up the mini-break on the first point. Fritz’s formidable forehand failed him on the break – he made 10 forehands in the set.
Serving with more conviction than the American, de Minaur pulled off a tight forehand for another minibreak at 4-1, then drilled a crosscourt for a 6-1 advantage and a handful of set points.
On his third set point, de Minaur set the bar central with a service winner to grab a one-set lead after a physical 56 minutes. De Minaur served more effectively than Fritz in the first set, winning 17 of 21 first serve points.
Energized, de Minaur roared back to his advantage with 12 of the first 15 points in the second set, including a backhand down the line for a break at love in the second game.
Fritz held for 1-3, but de Minaur again set serve-and-volley at 15 for 4-1.
Serving at 2-5, Fritz was going from corner to corner as de Minaur won a blistering 22-shot rally with one shot for match point. Digging in, Fritz showed defensive defiance by running into the Aussie’s flurry and then curling a pass back down the line. That sequence helped Fritz come back to make it 3-5, putting de Minaur right back in the same place he was when he blew the lead against Musetti on Tuesday.
As for Match Point savings…
funny, @Taylor_Fritz97#NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/EVYXNlWRqk
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 13, 2025
When de Minaur hit the love-30 serve for the match, you could almost signal the dead, brilliant Chris Cornell singing “I Fell in Black Days” as sights and sounds threatened to haunt the Austrians again.
This time, de Minaur defied the pressure. An ace out of bounds followed by a service-volley brought the Austrians level. De Minaur drilled the serve wide for a second match point.
Crushing a final serve on the tee to wrap it up in one hour and 34 minutes, de Minaur turned Tuesday’s house of horrors into a celebration with his first ATP Finals victory.
