What did Alex de Minaur think about the fact that he is going to Turin once again this year?
“Has it been confirmed?” he asked on court, want to be sure before he took a deep breath and let it soak on.
Then: “It feels amazing.”
Credit De Minaur, one of the hardest working, most dedicated players on the ATP Tour, for staying focused on winning matches rather than the ATP Race to Turin standings.
De Minaur says he purposely tried to block out the noise about qualifying for Turin, electing instead to keep his head down and focus on the day-to-day.
“I had no idea,” he told Tennis Channel. “I had no idea that securing that win was enough. So yeah, it was a lot of relief, and I’m very, very happy with that. It’s an amazing effort. Second year in a row.”
De Minaur joins Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton, with one spot yet to be claimed for the ATP Finals, which will take place from Sunday November 9 to Sunday November 16.
De Minaur, who leads the ATP in hard court wins with 42 this year, will face Alexander Bublik in the quarterfinals in Paris after his 6-2 6-2 thrashing of Khachanov.
“The way I was kind of looking at it, in the position that I was in, I just didn’t want to add extra elements of stress, right?” De Minaur said. “And I just tried to focus on my side of the court and playing my brand of tennis – that’s what’s put me in such a position, and adding extra elements was only going to make things a lot more complicated. So I’m very proud of my mental efforts.
“I’m extremely pleased to have made it a second year in a row, and it shows a lot of consistency and how my level has risen over the years, and I’m very proud of that.”
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