3 hours ago
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Alcaraz 1-1 De Minaur* De Minaur played positively in the first game and he presses the action here, outlasting Alcaraz in an 18-stroke rally; well, sort of. He dominates the exchange, but one poor shot almost costs him; the Spaniard, though, nets a forehand. An ace follows, the next serve goes unreturned, and that’s a confident hold from D-Min.
*Alcaraz 1-0 De Minaur (*denotes server) Alcaraz, dressed in Aussie colours, makes 15-0 then swipes a backhand into the top of the net. Then, at 30-15, a fine backhand cross from the Demon sets up a forehand table-tennis winner, spun cross-court with maximum prejudice. Naturally, an ace follows … then another. You’ve got to laugh.
De Minaur won the toss and opted to receive; ready … play.
Sinner and Alcaraz are, by the way, fighting to finish the year as world no 1. Alcaraz needs 450 points to guarantee that honour; he can achieve that by winning his three round-robin matches, or by reaching the final.
If he loses all three matches, Sinner must win two and win the title; if he wins one and loses two, Sinner must win two and win the title; and if he wins two and does not reach the final, Sinner must win every match en route to the title.
So what can De Minaur do to win? Er, not that much, but he might want to prolong the rallies, denying Alcaraz angle by hitting down the middle and hoping to frustrate him into going for too many improbable winners. Or he might unload on as many shots as possible, Wawrinka-style, looking for winners and hoping to hit a seam. Unlike the Stanimal, though, he doesn’t really have the game for the latter, which leaves him with the former.
…and here comes the genius.
Here comes the Demon…
Our players are ready to come on to court; “every single phone is out,” says our host, people preserving a moment they didn’t live. I wonder if even one of them will ever watch their video again.
Also going on:
Some pre-match reading;
I’d like to think Fritz has the power to beat the big two on a good day, but I’m afraid I can’t persuade myself. Every tournament both of them have entered this year, one of them has won.
Word to the wise: nothing whatsoever to do with tennis, but Wu Yize leads John Higgins 8-4 in the final of snooker’s International Championship. He’s yet to win a ranking title but looks almost certain to take this one and at just 22, is an imminent superstar.
Completing the field, in the Björn Borg Group are Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton, who meet this evening, along with Jannik Sinner and Felix Auger-Aliassime, whose contest we’ll be covering tomorrow night.
Also in Group Jimmy Connors: Lorenzo Musetti and Taylor Fritz, who meet tomorrow afternoon. The former is in as an alternate, involved only because Novak Djokovic beat him last evening in a marathon Hellenic Championship final, then withdrew from this week’s caper, injured.
Men’s tennis is in an interesting spot, isn’t it? Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have alternated majors this year and are, unarguably, moving away from the chasing pack. That’s good in a way – rivalries are crucial in individual sports, where most aren’t fanatically attached to any one player – but, at the same time, though the slams remains fantastic because they’re about so much more than the top two, they also feel predictable in that we know, almost for certain, which players will contest the final. The hope is that, in the next year or two, Jack Draper, João Fonseca, and perhaps Jakub Mensik and Jiri Lehecka improve enough to challenge but, in the meantime, we can expect more of the same.
Preamble
Hello there and welcome to the ATP Finals 2025 – day one!
Our week of fun begins with perhaps the funnest. Very few enjoy the stress of competition as much as Carlos Alcaraz, his unique brand of power and creativity unlike anything we’ve seen before, the pleasure he takes in his virtuosity as affirming as the virtuosity itself.
On the other hand, Alex de Minaur makes tennis look every bit as hard as it is, chasing and scurrying to mitigate his relative lack of power while having little apparent fun in the process. In four matches, he is yet to beat the world no 2 and, if we’re being honest, that seems unlikely to change this afternoon.
But if Alcaraz has an off-day – and just a fortnight ago, he lost to Cameron Norrie in Paris – De Minaur, consistent enough and mentally strong enough to punish him, has a chance.
Play: 12pm local, 1pm GMT
