Alex de Minaur overcame his demons to seal a stunning win over Taylor Fritz at the ATP Finals on Thursday \u2014 a result that holds huge ramifications in Turin.<\/p>\n
After a heartbreaking loss to Lorenzo Musetti on Tuesday<\/a>, de Minaur\u2019s hopes looked all but over at the year-end championships, with the Australian falling to a 0-5 career record at the ATP Finals.<\/p>\n However, a 7-6(3), 6-3 win over Fritz provides the perfect tonic after his loss to Musetti, and holds huge significance for himself, the Italian, and Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in Group Jimmy Connors.<\/p>\n After opening losses to Alcaraz and Musetti in Turin, de Minaur\u2019s<\/a> ATP Finals hopes were hanging by a thread heading into Thursday.<\/p>\n The only way the Australian could have any hope of qualification was if he could beat sixth seed and 2024 runner-up Fritz in straight sets \u2014 something he was able to do in style.<\/p>\n Victory for de Minaur this afternoon now means that he will qualify for the semi-final if Alcaraz beats Musetti in the final Group Jimmy Connors match tonight, a result that would see the Australian finish second.<\/p>\n Fritz had one win and one loss to his name across his first two matches, beating Musetti in straight sets before a three-set defeat to Alcaraz on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n That set won against Alcaraz put the American in with a solid chance of qualification come Thursday, with his destiny largely still within his own hands.<\/p>\n ATP Finals: Qualification permutations for Alcaraz, Musetti, Fritz, & de Minaur revealed<\/a><\/p>\n Alexander Zverev shuts down Jannik Sinner \u2018unplayable\u2019 question after ATP Finals loss<\/a><\/p>\n However, a straight-set loss to de Minaur was the absolute worst-case scenario for Fritz, and last year\u2019s finalist is now officially out of the tournament and is unable to progress \u2014 regardless of Alcaraz and Musetti\u2019s result.<\/p>\n Alcaraz and Musetti will be focusing on their own match, but this afternoon\u2019s result holds huge significance for both men in this group.<\/p>\n The good news for Alcaraz is that he has now officially qualified for the knockout stage, with neither de Minaur nor Fritz able to overtake him.<\/p>\n The Spaniard will top the group should he beat Musetti on Thursday night, and face the runner-up from Group Bjorn Borg in the last four \u2014 one of Alexander Zverev or Felix Auger-Aliassime.<\/p>\n Should Alcaraz lose to Musetti, he would finish in second place behind the Italian \u2014 booking a blockbuster semi-final against Jannik Sinner, the winner of Group Bjorn Borg.<\/p>\n De Minaur\u2019s win now means that Musetti must absolutely defeat Alcaraz on Thursday to have any chance of progression.<\/p>\n If Musetti were to lose, he, de Minaur, and Fritz would all hold three points \u2014 though the Australian would reach the semi-final due to a higher percentage of sets won.<\/p>\n A win for the Italian would see him top the group ahead of Alcaraz, moving ahead of the Spaniard on head-to-head.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: Alex de Minaur\u2019s painful press conference suggests the time has come for tennis to change<\/a><\/p>\n The post ATP Finals: How Alex de Minaur can still reach semi-final after stunning Taylor Fritz win<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex de Minaur overcame his demons to seal a stunning win over Taylor Fritz at the ATP Finals on Thursday \u2014 a result that holds huge ramifications in Turin. After a heartbreaking loss to Lorenzo Musetti on Tuesday, de Minaur\u2019s hopes looked all but over at the year-end championships, with the Australian falling to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What does victory mean for de Minaur?<\/h2>\n
What does defeat mean for Fritz?<\/h2>\n
Tennis News<\/h2>\n
What does it mean for Alcaraz and Musetti?<\/h2>\n