De Minaur’s Impressive Finals Run
Alex De Minaur stretched a trend of unseeded players making the final in Toronto to three years running. And he wasn’t blessed with an easy draw to do so.
He was unfortunate to match up with 11th seeded Cam Norrie in the tournament’s opening round but dispatched of the Brit in straight sets. He then took care of Canadian qualifier Gabriel Diallo to set a date with Taylor Fritz in the round of 16.
Fritz was the eighth seed, but De Minaur was able to get by him as his endurance prevailed in the three-setter winning the final set 6-1.
The Aussie then had to face the two seed Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals. Medvedev won the tournament in 2021 and was a heavy favourite coming into the matchup. De Minaur stayed composed and took the match 7-6 (9-7), 7-5.
He then made quick work of world no. 23 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the semi-finals before meeting Jannik Sinner in the final.
Sinner Vs. De Minaur Finals Recap
The National Bank Open final was set up to be a good one with the world no. 8 Jannik Sinner and world no. 18 Alex De Minaur both searching for their first Masters 1000 title.
Although in the end it didn’t turn out to be the nail-biting match that fans wished for, it was very tightly contested in the first set.
The first set saw a back-and-forth battle that ultimately went Sinner’s way as both players struggled to hold serve.
Sinner immediately took a 2-0 lead after breaking De Minaur’s opening service game. De Minaur however would come right back and claim his own break, then consolidate it to knot the set at two’s.
The two men continued this pattern with Sinner taking the next two games to claim a 4-2 lead then De Minaur taking two after that to tie it up again. Unfortunately for De Minaur, he was unable to break the trend as Sinner would hold for a 5-4 lead then break at love to claim the set 6-4.
In the second set, Sinner appeared to begin to feel the moment in a positive way as he upped his game to which De Minaur had no answer. In just 35 minutes Sinner took the second set 6-1 and in turn claimed the match and the title.
De Minaur played his typical, consistent, error free game looking to wait for the 21-year-old Italian to make mistakes. Though Sinner did finish with 16 unforced errors to De Minaur’s four, his power and aggression led him to the straight sets victory.
Sinner put five aces past De Minaur to go along with 14 winners while the Australian had just one ace and three winners.
The victory gave the 21-year-old Italian his first Masters 1000 win of his young career.
New Career High Ranking for De Minaur
Alex De Minaur jumped from 18th to 12th in the world rankings thanks to his performance in Toronto. The new seeding is a career high for the 24-year-old who is on track to become the first Australian man to break into the ATP top 10 since Lleyton Hewitt in 2006.
