Key events
*Alcaraz 5-4 De Minaur Trouble for Alcaraz at 30-30, but a delivery out wide is backed up with a deft volley, and a net cord that kills the ball dead secures the hold. De Minaur will now serve to stay in the set.
Alcaraz 4-4 De Minaur* De Minaur reaches 40-15 and though a net cord keeps him from a love hold, after mashing a forehand winner, Alcaraz overhits and we’re back level. That did not look likely at 4-2 0-40, but here we are, the set now right back in the balance.
*Alcaraz 4-3 De Minaur It’s an absolute outrage for Alcaraz to be this good, to dominate opponents this good, at his age. At 22, he’s already won six majors, enshrined as an all-time great, and who knows where it’ll end? He does, though, find himself serving at 30-all, controlling the next rally. But somehow, De Minaur stops in it, skidding from side to side before blocking back an overhead and inciting the error! A point for the break back … and again, behind in the rally, he hoists a decent lob … splattered back art him for a winner. The Demon, though, is playing his best tennis of the set in this game, creating an opportunity to hare in and dispatch a forehand winner down the line for advantage; can get after a second serve? Er, not in the way that he’d like, but Alcaraz nets a forehand and, out of nowhere, the Aussie breaks back!
Alcaraz 4-2 De Minaur* Oh dear. Alcaraz quickly makes 0-30 then, assaulted from the back, he wafts a backhand wide, the 21st shot of a fantastic rally, and there just isn’t much he can do about this: his best isn’t good enough to even get close with the blond bombshell in this kind of form. But he sure knows how to compete, saving three break points before rushing through advantage to secure an improbable hold.
*Alcaraz 4-1 De Minaur There just isn’t much anyone can do when Alcaraz hits like that, but chasing a T-serve, De Minaur flaps a desperate return inside-out … and into the corner. What a strike that is, even if winning points like that is unsustainable, and a flat forehand, belted cross, restores parity at 15-all. And though, at 40-15, Alcaraz nets a forehand of his own, Demon then goes long, and that’s the break endorsed. This match is proceeding exactly as we thought it would.
Alcaraz 3-1 De Minaur* Alcaraz makes 0-15, a backhand down the line is good enough to go unreturned, then a gorgeously disguised drop raises three break points. So De Minaur looks to attack the backhand … and another belter, this time a clean winner, securers the advantage and concludes a near-perfect game.
*Alcaraz 2-1 De Minaur The balls aren’t bouncing all that high, which is good for De Minaur; it limits Alcaraz’s power advantage and stops him hitting down on the ball. He makes 30-15 with the aid of an ace, but on game point, is cramped by a return on to the baseline and can’t respond. Oh, and have a look: De Minaur attacks a second serve, as he must, then seizes control of the rally with a big forehand down the line, cleaning up thereafter to make deuce. Alcaraz, though, can’t convert advantage, seeing his first drop of the match run down, but he does enough with his second; De Minaur will be naused he couldn’t make more of another second delivery.
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
