TURIN: Jannik Sinner continued his mastery over Alex de Minaur on Saturday with a straight-sets win to reach the ATP Finals championship match for the third year in a row. Sinner broke late in the first set and then pulled away from De Minaur to complete a 7-5, 6-2 win &mdash; his 13th in as many meetings with the Australian. The Italian world number two has yet to drop a service game en route to the final but will likely have a tougher test in the final against top seed Carlos Alcaraz, who is favourite to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in Saturday&#39;s other semifinal. &ldquo;Honestly every matchup (with Alcaraz) is different. We saw it in Rome and Paris, even if it is the same surface (clay), it can change,&rdquo; said Sinner, who lost both of those finals before beating his Spanish rival to win Wimbledon. &ldquo;Another final, it has been an amazing year for me. I am looking forward to tomorrow&hellip; also to see for me where my level really is, but at the same time it is great before the offseason to have this matchup. &ldquo;He still has a match to go against Felix&hellip; He loves to play indoors, as we know. Let us see who is going to win. Anyway, I am happy to be in the final. Then we see.&rdquo; Sinner has won his last 18 sets played in Turin, where he beat Taylor Fritz in last year&rsquo;s final. The four-time Grand Slam champion is on a 30-match winning streak on indoor hard courts. The 24-year-old Sinner has not dropped a set at the ATP Finals since losing the 2023 final to Novak Djokovic, while De Minaur ends his year with a more upbeat mood than the one he had after losing to Lorenzo Musetti in the group stage. De Minaur&rsquo;s new perspective De Minaur admitted that he had been in a &ldquo;dark place&rdquo; after that loss, which almost cost him a place in the last four, before he beat Taylor Fritz to set up Saturday&#39;s clash with Sinner. &ldquo;I had a little shift in perspective. Of course, like, sitting here right now, I feel like I should have finished my Turin campaign having won two matches instead of one,&rdquo; De Minaur told reporters. &ldquo;But you cannot really change the past. You have just got to do your best to learn from it, get back up, and keep on heading forward, right? That is ultimately the goal now. Obviously I am in a much better place.&rdquo; De Minaur fought off two break points in the opening game of the semifinal but then failed to convert any of the three he carved out in Sinner&rsquo;s first service game. The Australian resisted again when Sinner threatened to break in the seventh and ninth games, but the second seed eventually struck the key blow at 5-5 and snatched the first set. Sinner surged 4-0 ahead in the second set before wrapping up his ninth straight win at the tournament, becoming the youngest player since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004 to reach three finals at the season-ending event. If Sinner faces Alcaraz in the final, it will be their sixth meeting of the season. Alcaraz has won four of the five previous matches, triumphing in the French Open and US Open finals.<figure class="fr-media"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic"> </figcaption></figure>

Italy's Jannik Sinner celebrates after winning his semifinal against Australia's Alex de Minaur at the ATP Finals tennis tournament in Turin on November 15, 2025. (Marco Bertorello/AFP)

Tennis

Jannik Sinner continued his mastery over Alex de Minaur on Saturday with a straight-sets win to reach the ATP Finals championship match for the third year in a row

Sinner beats De Minaur to reach ATP Finals title match

TURIN: Carlos Alcaraz battled to victory over Taylor Fritz at the ATP Finals on Tuesday, moving to within one win of securing the year-end number one ranking for the second time.&nbsp;The five-time Grand Slam champion made it two wins from two in the Jimmy Connors Group with a comeback 6-7 (2/7), 7-5, 6-3 victory over last year&#39;s runner-up Fritz in Turin.&nbsp;He will qualify for the semi-finals if Alex de Minaur beats home hope Lorenzo Musetti in Tuesday&#39;s second match.&nbsp;&quot;I&#39;m really happy that I was able to come back, find my good tennis,&quot; Alcaraz said.&nbsp;&quot;I just tried to make the most of the opportunities that he gave to me. I think we played great tennis, some great points.&quot;&nbsp;Alcaraz, who was replaced by rival Jannik Sinner as world number one following the Paris Masters earlier this month, will finish 2025 at the top of the rankings if he beats Musetti on Thursday.&nbsp;Sinner has to successfully defend his Finals title, unbeaten, to have any chance of ending the season as number one for a second straight year.&nbsp;Alcaraz now holds a 5-1 winning record against Fritz, whose only win against the Spaniard came at the Laver Cup in September.&nbsp;The United States&#39; Fritz will face De Minaur in his last group contest.

Carlos Alcaraz defeated Taylor Fritz in a three-set battle at the ATP Finals, moving closer to reclaiming the year-end world number one ranking. He’ll secure it with a win over Lorenzo Musetti on Thursday.

Articles tagged with "ATP"

Sinner beats De Minaur to reach ATP Finals title match

Alcaraz fights back to beat Fritz at ATP Finals

Sinner beats De Minaur to reach ATP Finals title match