Alex de Minaur faces the tallest of orders on his ATP Finals debut, having to sort out his nemesis Jannik Sinner in entrance of the Italian’s adoring followers on the opening night time of the showpiece occasion in Turin.
De Minaur, the primary Australian to compete within the males’s tour’s end-of-season championship for 20 years, has by no means crushed the world primary in seven makes an attempt.
In Thursday’s draw, de Minaur has been positioned alongside Sinner, in addition to former Finals champion Daniil Medvedev and American Taylor Fritz within the Ilie Nastase Group, named after the primary ATP world primary.
Solely the highest two of the quartet will qualify for the semifinals, leaving de Minaur more likely to be needing wins towards Medvedev and Fritz if he needs to make the last-four, since his report towards Sinner is so discouraging.
In seven contests with the Italian, de Minaur has solely taken one set — and that was 4 years in the past.
But this has been a 12 months when de Minaur has been making big breakthroughs.
He beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in Acapulco, for the primary time after 10 defeats.
He additionally has a shedding report towards Medvedev (3-6) however did defeat the Russian on the French Open this 12 months in his breakthrough run on the Roland Garros clay.
Alex de Minaur will face a troublesome take a look at to get out of the pool section. (Getty Photos: Diego Puletto)
The Australian world quantity eight does, nonetheless, lead world quantity six Fritz 5-3 of their head-to-head, having received their solely conflict this season.
Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have been positioned in several swimming pools, with Spain’s Wimbledon and French Open champion drawn alongside Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev within the John Newcombe Group — named in honour of the Aussie nice who was the ATP’s second world primary.
Sinner (Australian Open and US Open) and Alcaraz break up the 12 months’s 4 grand slam titles between them, and can be favourites to satisfy within the closing.
Sinner received to the championship match final 12 months, solely to be crushed by Novak Djokovic, however the 24-time grand slam champ introduced this week that he wouldn’t be defending his crown.
“It is unusual to not see Novak right here, simply due to all of the success he had,” Zverev mentioned.
“The primary time I received in 2018, you needed to beat each or not less than two of the three gamers. I beat Federer within the semis after which I beat Djokovic within the finals. You needed to beat these guys to have an opportunity on the title. So it does really feel completely different.
“However I really feel like now with Jannik and Carlos it type of moved towards the identical approach, simply with new guys. You must undergo them to win massive tournaments. It is so simple as that.”
De Minaur is just not the one Australian in motion in Turin, with US Open champions Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell making up an all-Sydney outfit within the doubles competitors.
They will open up the entire event on Sunday towards Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic.
Australia’s Olympic doubles champ Matt Ebden may also be partnering 44-year-old Indian veteran Rohan Bopanna.
AAP
