NITTO ATP FINALS

November 15, 2025

Alex De Minaur

Inalpi Arena,Torino

Press Conference

J. SINNER/A. de Minaur

7-5, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Alex, tough match. Another good season for you. Looking back, what are you most proud about this season?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, it's been another positive season for me. Obviously staying in the top 10, top 8, is a good achievement. I won a lot of matches this year.

There's still plenty to learn and grow from, plenty to improve, which I'll be looking at. Hopefully next year will be an even better version of myself.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You said during the tournament that you went to very dark places. Now that it's done, do you see the light?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I mean, look, I had a little shift in perspective. Of course, like, sitting here right now, I feel like I should have finished my Turin campaign having won two matches instead of one. But you can't really change the past. You've just got to do your best to learn from it, get back up, and keep on heading forward, right?

That's ultimately the goal now. Obviously I'm in a much better place. I think today there was a lot of good stuff. Ultimately we just got to keep on improving. There's no other way.

Q. I don't want to sound cocky, but do you remember a set that you played better than the first one in your career today? To me, was almost your top level possible and still not enough. I'm just curious.

ALEX de MINAUR: Uhm (smiling)... That's a tough question to ask someone because it kind of sounds like my best is not good enough in your eyes. I have won sets against Jannik in the past.

Look, I'm going to say that, yeah, there was a lot of good stuff in that first set. I think one of the key elements was I dropped my percentage of first serve in the crucial stages, which allowed him to jump on top of me in that 5-All game. He came up with some pretty good shots, as well.

Look, I played him many, many times. Even though a lot of people may not think so, I know how to beat him. It's just not that easy to do, right (smiling)? You've got to hit the ball very hard, very flat, very deep and very close to the lines. It is something that I try to do, but it's obviously not the easiest thing to do.

I do think for me to have genuine chances, I need to serve well throughout the whole match. My serve dropped a little bit and could have been better.

Q. How motivated are you now, looking ahead to 2026, closing that gap to those two at the top?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, look, it's always the goal. As I said, I still think that I've got more to give. I haven't hit my peak just yet. I've also got to be careful with how much I push myself and how much pressure I put on myself because that's what gets me into dark places, right? The desire to keep on improving and keep on wanting more and expecting more... I've got to find a healthy balance.

As we've seen kind of in the last two matches, I do have the ability to play with a higher pace and more aggressive style tennis. I do think this is what needs to come out to beat the best players in the world.

Q. After the French Open you said you were obviously mentally fatigued, needed to reset. How important is it now, no Davis Cup coming up for you, to take the next few weeks off heading into the next season?

ALEX de MINAUR: It is extremely important. Yeah, I've played a lot the last five or so years. Obviously Davis Cup has been always a huge priority in my calendar.

Yeah, it's nice to have some time to switch off. I'm going to need that because obviously we saw this year how I went through a tough stage. I don't want to do that in the biggest tournaments of the year.

For me to take the next step, it's just being fresh, not putting as much pressure on myself, and ultimately just stepping up in the bigger tournaments. That's what it's going to take for me to jump from where I've been the last two years to potentially in the top 5 and pushing for bigger and better things.

Q. Any reason for dropping serving percentage? I think it even dropped to the 50s as one stage. I know you've played Jannik the most probably, but is he the toughest for you when you compare playing Alcaraz and Novak and Roger and Rafa?

ALEX de MINAUR: I think one of the things that makes it very difficult against Jannik is his return of serve, right? That's one of the biggest things for me.

If I'm not serving really well, then I'm in trouble. If I'm missing a lot of first serves and I'm starting points with second serves, that's when I'm kind of behind in the rally. Against other players, I can maneuver that from time to time.

Of course, you've got that and then the pace of ball. That's the biggest thing. When you are in baseline exchanges, his pace of ball is very large. It's got a lot of revolutions from both the forehand and the backhand side.

It's a lot easier to dictate play if you're landing first serves, right? That's the biggest thing. It just got to a point where maybe I was trying to over-serve a little bit 'cause I felt like he was getting on top of my serves. Maybe I started to push a little bit more and lost a little bit of rhythm.

Yeah, I mean, again, I'm going in the right track. I think the level of that first set was very good. I had my chances. I had a Love-40 early in that set that could have given me a little bit of buffer. Who knows what could have happened.

But hey, back to the drawing board. Yeah, time to bring on a new season.

Q. And comparing him to the others?

ALEX de MINAUR: I do think there's more constant pressure. That's the biggest thing with Jannik. More often than not I feel like with Jannik you can get into a bit of a snowball effect. After one break, the second break comes, and all of a sudden you're doing your best to fight off potentially a bagel or 6-1.

That's mainly due to how well he's returning and his serving at the moment. His serving under duress in big points has been exceptional. I think I'm probably not the first player this week to talk about that. That's been very impressive by him.

Q. You progressed a lot, in my opinion, in the last two years. You're both playing much better. The results don't change too much. I'm asking, what has been the biggest improvement of Sinner, from your point of view? He hasn't lost for instance in this whole tournament serving 39 times and never lost a game on his serve, while against you he had either break point or deuce every game but two. The problem in my opinion was that your percentage of first serve was only 52%. What is your opinion?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I mean, again, Jannik is a little bit taller than me, has a little bit more length, which helps him on serve. Obviously he's been serving at a very high level not only today but the whole match.

As for me, my serve is something that's been a work in progress. Over the years, it definitely has gotten a lot better. It's finding that balance because he's 2 at the moment, but he's played pretty well for a couple years. He's been incredibly solid, right?

It means that I can't just make first serves against Jannik, right? I can't put my percentage up, serve at 75%, 80%, but just rolling it in, right? I need to hit my spots and go after my serves.

Yeah, I served a lot better in the first set than I did in the second. That's probably the difference in the two sets. Obviously I had Love-40 early in the set, and he gave me a look at a second serve. He hit two good first serves, but I had a look at a second serve. Potentially that was my chance to take.

We're talking about one of the best players in the world. His level is insanely high. You're going to have to bring a very high level to beat him.

For me, as I said, the only way forward is to keep trying to improve those things. The serve is one of the biggest things 'cause returning I'm normally going to give myself chances. I back myself on returns. I just need to do a little bit better job on my serve.

Thank you.