Alex de Minaur Breaks His Silence on That Emotional ATP Finals Presser: “It Haunted Me,” He Admits, Due to…
Alex de Minaur doesn’t necessarily think he made a bad decision by being brutally honest about his feelings following a heartbreaking ATP Finals loss to Lorenzo Musetti.
After losing to Carlos Alcaraz in his Turin opener, de Minaur also made a slow start against Musetti but recovered to take a 5-7 6-3 5-3 lead. But just when it seemed that the world No. 7 would complete a three-set comeback win, he started spraying errors and ended up losing the next four games and the match.
Speaking with reporters afterward, a dejected de Minaur described his feelings as “quite dark” and added: “I don’t know how many times I can deal with a loss like this one.”
The Australian tennis star has been pretty consistent over the past few years, but has often struggled to get over the hump in the biggest matches. The stat that shows it the best is his 0-6 record in Grand Slam quarterfinals.
De Minaur on candidly opening up at the ATP Finals
“Ultimately, I don’t think it’s the worst thing to be completely honest and open. A lot of the time as players, we try to put on a brave face, but certain losses are a lot harder. We would probably be lying if we said this defeat has not affected me, I’m happy with the result and all that stuff. For me, it was a chance to be completely honest with myself and speak from the heart. Ultimately, for me, that’s the way I can learn from those moments and experiences and try not to make the same mistakes again,” the 26-year-old told Tennis365.
After the Musetti loss, a bit of a miracle happened for de Minaur when he beat Taylor Fritz in his last group match and reached the ATP Finals knock-out stage with a 1-2 record. He was then beaten by Jannik Sinner in the semifinal.
The Australian is now competing at this weekend’s UTS event in London.
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RTF boss asked if he fears Mirra Andreeva, Diana Shnaider will leave Russia
Shamil Tarpischev insists he is not worried at all about Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider possibly following the path of some other Russian-born players as the Russian Tennis Federation President is confident the two young stars will continue to play under the Russian flag.
In the last couple of days, Russia lost two WTA players. Firstly, world No. 112 Kamilla Rakhimova decided to start representing Uzbekistan. Then, on Thursday, three-time WTA champion Anastasia Potapova switched her allegiance to Austria. It was the third and fourth cases of it happening to Russian tennis this year – Daria Kasatkina started playing under the Australian flag in April, while Maria Timofeeva took the Uzbekistan passport.
Recent cases led to some wondering if Andreeva and Shnaider – the two most promising and talented Russian female tennis player – would do the same. Andreeva won two WTA 1000 titles this year and is currently ranked at No. 9 in the world, while 21st-ranked Shnaider already has five titles under her belt.
Tarpischev asked if he fears about Andreeva and Shnaider leaving Russia
“No. Neither she nor Diana. Imagine, I have 1,070 tennis players playing abroad. They’re like army men! And we keep 350 on our national teams. The rest are on their own,” Russian Tennis Federation President Tarpischev told Championat.
After the Potapova news dropped, Tarpischev was asked by the same publication to address it.
“I can’t say anything about Potapova. For us, if this isn’t a complete surprise, then it’s a surprise that she did it. She lived in Austria for two years. I can only assume she wants to participate in the Olympics. She doesn’t make our team based on the rankings. She kept complaining about visa problems. It disrupts our rhythm. Purely mundane things,” Tarpischev told Championat.
Last weekend, the Northern Palmyra Trophies in St. Petersburg took place. Shnaider was one of the participants of the Russian exhibition.
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