Alex de Minaur suffered his 13th straight loss to Jannik Sinner during the ATP Finals semi-final.
Sinner outclassed de Minaur at the ATP Finals to set up a final clash with Carlos Alcaraz at the year-end tournament.
The Australian’s campaign might have been ended by Sinner, but he produced a remarkable comeback to defeat Taylor Fritz and qualify for the knockout stages.
De Minaur looked lost after suffering a brutal defeat to Lorenzo Musetti, but his mentality brought him through the match with Fritz.
Patrick Mouratoglou was stunned by Alex de Minaur’s recovery
The Australian’s steely endeavour has long been one of his defining features, but it didn’t stop iconic tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou from being stunned by what he saw from de Minaur.
He needed a straight sets victory against Fritz to keep his hopes alive after losing his first two matches to Alcaraz and Musetti.
De Minaur played one of his best matches of the year to sweep aside the American and confirm a place in the semi-finals.
Mouratoglou was left astounded by de Minaur’s inspiring comeback.
On Instagram, he revealed: “[He said] ‘My goal is to achieve that, I’m going to do it.’ I think he is the perfect example of how to bounce back after a loss, how to accept the pain, how to understand the mistakes, and how to reset for the next match and focus only on what he can control.”
The iconic coach also made sure to praise de Minaur’s coach, Adolfo Gutierrez, who has worked with the Aussie since he was a child.
Mouratoglou continued: “That’s where the coach is important. The coach has to ask the right questions, find a way to remobilise all the strength of his player.
“If the coach does a great job after a tough loss, same day the player can be in almost euphoria because he understood what he did wrong and he’s ready to go for the next one because he knows that tomorrow is going to be better.
“From devastated to playing a top performance match, Alex de Minaur is a fighter. He made peace with himself. He accepted it, he accepted that he feels that way which is great.
“The only thing we can do is look at the future, take the lessons, and look at the future. And that’s what he did.”
De Minaur ends the season as the world number seven after a year which has seen him win the Washington Open and reach the Rotterdam Open final.
Alex de Minaur’s solid 2025 season
The Australian has been a bastion of consistency since confirming his place as a bona fide top 10 player, and he has continued that form in 2025.
The star reached his first Australian Open quarter-final at the start of the year, meaning he’s now reached the last eight of every Grand Slam.
De Minaur won his tenth title of his career in Washington, but he is yet to win anything higher than an ATP 500 event.
If the Australian wants to make the next step up in his career, he needs to start challenging for the bigger events.
He has reached one Masters final in his career, at the 2023 Canadian Open, but he lost to Sinner.
