Alex De Minaur kept his hopes of a semi-final spot alive in Turin after defeating Taylor Fritz 7-6(3) 6-3 at the Nitto ATP Finals.
The Australian won the big points as he avenged his loss to Lorenzo Musetti from a couple of days ago.
Meanwhile, last year’s finalist Taylor Fritz has been eliminated after losing his second match of the tournament.
In a match De Minaur had to win in straight sets, the seventh seed made the perfect start as he broke in the third game before consolidating in a tight service game to take a 3-1 lead.
Both players played some confident tennis and Fritz recovered from the early setback in order to break back comfortably in the sixth game at 3-3.
It was De Minaur who was more consistently threatening on return and the Australian had break point in the eleventh game to have the chance to serve for the opening set.
However, Fritz was clutch on serve in the big moments as the American forced an opening set tiebreak.
There would be no success for Fritz as De Minaur deservedly dominated the tiebreak to take the opening set.
In the second set, De Minaur made the perfect start as he broke a frustrated Fritz to love in the second set before taking a 3-0 lead.
There was a reassurance about De Minaur on serve as he was cruising towards the victory and pushed for the killer blow in the eighth game by creating match point on return.
One last push from Fritz meant the American saved match point and held as he threatened De Minaur’s success by pushing for the break in the ninth game.
This would be a different story for De Minaur though as he claimed the last three points and he sealed victory to win his first match of the tournament.
After the match De Minaur admitted he was happy with his performance after a tough tournament, “I have worked really hard so it was good to get some positive feedback or a positive reward for the hard work, so I am very happy with the performance,” De Minaur told the ATP website.
“I have dealt with a fair bit of heartbreak recently, so it was good to finally get a win here in Turin.”
The result means De Minaur will qualify for the semi-finals of the Nitto ATP Finals if Carlos Alcaraz beats Lorenzo Musetti later on.
However, if Musetti defeats the world number one then the Italian will qualify and De Minaur will exit the tournament.
Meanwhile it’s heartbreak for Fritz as he exits the tournament having pushed Alcaraz hard in the second match.
Last year Fritz reached the final and will lose a lot of ranking points as he ends his season with a 53-23 win-loss record.
