ATP Finals: Alex de Minaur recovers from ‘a dark place’ to keep bid alive and send Carlos Alcaraz through

Alex de Minaur recovered from «a dark place» to keep alive his hopes of progressing at the ATP Finals, while confirming Carlos Alcaraz’s place in the knockout stages in Turin.

Requiring a straight-set victory to remain in contention, Australia’s De Minaur ended American sixth seed Taylor Fritz’s tournament with an impressive 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 win.

Spain’s Alcaraz faces Lorenzo Musetti in the final match in the Jimmy Connors Group later on Thursday, when Italian Musetti will seek to deny De Minaur qualification for the semi-finals.

Although already qualified, Alcaraz will be highly motivated to achieve a third consecutive win – not only to top the group, but to also guarantee the year-end world number one ranking.

De Minaur will be among those willing Alcaraz to victory after maintaining his interest in the season-ending competition despite opening with back-to-back defeats.

The 26-year-old was reluctant to trust the news that he would qualify with an Alcaraz win when he was initially informed in his post-match interview.

De Minaur had lost his past 16 matches against top 10 players, and each of the five matches he had previously played at the ATP Finals.

A painful defeat by Musetti on Tuesday, in which De Minaur held a 5-3 lead in the deciding set before losing four consecutive games to concede the match, had rocked his confidence.

But, against an opponent whom he had lost the two previous meetings, De Minaur reset mentally to produce an inspired display against Fritz.

«It means a lot. A couple of days ago I was in a pretty dark place,» De Minaur told Sky Sports.

«More than anything, I feel proud of my efforts. Not for just coming out and winning, but also the mindset. I made peace with what had happened and just committed.»

Speaking in his post-match interview, he said on court: «I’ve dealt with a fair bit of heartbreak recently.

«I’ve worked really hard, so it was good to get a positive reward for that.

«[The loss to Musetti] was a tough pill to swallow. I didn’t overthink today, I just went out and committed to what I needed to do. I continued to back myself and, whether it worked or it didn’t, I was going to leave it all out there today.»