Alcaraz Opens ATP Finals With Dominant Victory Over De Minaur

Spanish Tennis star Carlos Alcaraz earned a dominant 7-6(5) 6-2 over Australian Alex de Minaur in their round-robin clash at the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin on Sunday.

Alcaraz won his opening match in the tournament for the first time despite De Minaur’s battling display where the Australian recovered from 4-1 down to force a tiebreak in the opening set before the Spaniard came out on top.

The pair traded breaks of serve at the start of the second set, but Alcaraz broke twice more to again lead 4-1 and this time there was no comeback despite De Minaur’s valiant effort in the opening match of the Jimmy Connors Group.

Both players were looking to improve on last year’s showing, where Alcaraz lost two of his three round-robin matches in straight sets while De Minaur lost all three group matches. Alcaraz had lost the opening match at his previous two appearances.

After winning the tiebreak, Alcaraz began to enjoy himself a little more, holding his hand to his ear to milk the applause that greeted him winning a long, entertaining rally to hold serve and lead 5-1 and there was no way back for De Minaur.

Alcaraz is also on course to end the year as world number one, and in Turin he must reach the final with at least one round-robin win or sweep his round-robin matches to guarantee himself the award for the second time.

He was delighted to open his ATP Finals campaign with a victory.

Alcaraz said, “It was a really difficult match. On this surface, Alex makes the most of the speed of the ball, he’s super fast and really difficult on return. I’m just really happy to get through this really difficult challenge.

“I’ve been struggling in the past few years to come to the end of the year with motivation.

“This year is a little bit different, which I’m proud about. I’m doing the right things to give myself a shot to try and win this tournament.”

Italian Jannik Sinner needs to retain his title to have any chance of finishing the year in top spot.

The ATP Finals, which features the top eight singles players and doubles teams in the world, has a record prize pool of $15.5m and offers 1,500 points.