NITTO ATP FINALS

November 9, 2025

Alex De Minaur

Inalpi Arena,Torino

Press Conference

C. ALCARAZ/A. de Minaur

7-6, 6-2

ALEX de MINAUR

THE MODERATOR: Alex, tough match. Since it was your first match, can you tell us a little bit about your first impression.

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, obviously a tough match against a very good opponent. Felt like I had chances in the first set. He showed up today and brought a very high level, which made it difficult to kind of hang in with him at times.

THE MODERATOR: First question...

Q. About the surface, you were here last year, do you find it faster? Slower? If you compare it to Paris from one week ago?

ALEX de MINAUR: For me it feels a bit faster than last year. Last year felt slower.

Now in terms of compared to Paris, I still potentially think it's a little bit slower than Paris.

Q. Here?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yep.

Q. I'm keen to ask, when you're trying to break through and beat a player for the first time, you've been largely competitive with Carlos in all the meetings you played him, what were things discussed coming into this encounter knowing he's going to bring a level all the time, you're trying to find that chink?

ALEX de MINAUR: 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.

Q. As you're saying, there were so many close moments in the match. How do you stop yourself from getting frustrated in those situations when those points that you really need just don't happen?

ALEX de MINAUR: 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.

Q. After this type of match with a very tight first set, do you feel very close to this type of player or you can still picture a big margin between him and you?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, look, when I look at it, I don't just look at this match, I look at the collection of matches we played. I do feel like I'm quite close to a breakthrough, right?

In terms of today, I think he brought out some of the highest level that he has played against me. The way I kind of look at that is when he's hitting his backhand line at the level that he was today, he's playing with a lot of confidence, right? Normally that's the side where I feel more comfortable in when rallies are being played. But today he was on, right?

That backhand line, he broke me a couple times just hitting plain winners. When he's playing in that kind of mood, it's pretty tough to hang on, right? When he's playing at his top level, he's got a lot of weapons and can hit winners from anywhere on the court.

I look at that first set, I look at it like I had it in my hands. If I would have won that set, I don't think he plays that level in the second set, so...

We'll move on and get ready for the next one.