Alex de Minaur says he knows how to beat Jannik Sinner but underlines it is all but easy to execute it on the court against the four-time Grand Slam champion.
On Saturday, world No. 7 appeared in his maiden semifinal at the ATP Finals. And the Australian's campaign ended there to a nightmare rival as Sinner completed a 7-5 6-2 win to reach his third consecutive final in Turin.
De Minaur has now played against Sinner 13 times and ended on the losing side as many times. In those 13 matches, only twice has the 26-year-old managed to win a set against the world No. 2.
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De Minaur: I know how to beat Sinner... It's just not that easy
"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," the world No. 7 said.
Early in their ATP Finals match, de Minaur had a great chance to go up by a break but he missed out on three consecutive break points in the second game. While the Australian saved a total of three break points across the seventh and ninth games, he couldn't do the same in the 11th game as Sinner clinched the first break for a 6-5 lead before serving out for the opener in the following game.
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The Australian's game completely collapsed after losing the first set in such a way as Sinner took the opening four games of the second set before closing out the match in the eighth game.
Four of de Minaur's 24 losses in 2025 came against the Italian.
