Alex de Minaur enjoyed a good day in Vienna in his battle to reach his first ATP Finals, but the Australian No.1 has “no big expectations” of making it to the end-of-season tennis showpiece.
Vienna, Austria, 25 October 2024 | AAP / AP
Alex de Minaur has enjoyed a good day in his battle to reach the ATP Finals for the first time, but Australia’s main man remains adamant he has “no big expectations” of making it to the end-of-season tennis showpiece.
De Minaur, currently one place outside the top eight who will qualify for Turin, closed the gap on Thursday when he eased into the quarterfinals of the ATP Vienna Open.
That victory came over Italian riser Flavio Cobolli, who was forced to retire with an injury.
De Minaur, who’s himself still not 100 per cent after the hip injury that marred his season at Wimbledon and beyond, was left encouraged that he was recovering some of his early 2024 form as he was leading Cobolli 7-6(2) 3-1 when the Italian’s troublesome right shoulder prompted him to call it a day.
“I think there was definitely a little bit of that (incremental improvement) today,” said De Minaur.
“I felt a little bit more comfortable in the way I was playing, the way I was moving. All around, I was at a very good level.”
Of his 22-year-old opponent’s injury, he added: “Obviously, I don’t want to finish the match like that by any means. I’m wishing Flavio a speedy recovery, he’s a hell of a player, hell of a talent and I’m sure the while tennis world wants to see him back on court as soon as possible.”
Get better, Flavio 👋
Alex de Minaur moves into the QFs in Vienna after Cobolli retires (7-6 3-1.)#ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/odiz9Q0jqA
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 24, 2024
The victory helped De Minaur, currently ninth in the ‘Race to Turin’, to move back to within 265 points of eighth-placed Andrey Rublev, who is into the quarterfinals of the other ATP event in Basel this week.
De Minaur needs a deep run both in Austria and in next week’s big points-scoring event at the Paris Masters but is adamant that he is more interested in concentrating on himself than looking at the ATP points situation.
“There’s still a lot of guys winning their matches too,” smiled De Minaur.
“I’m doing my best to focus on myself, and do the best I can. No big expectations – I don’t know how the body’s going to pull up, so I’m just taking it day by day and if I can keep on…
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