Carlos Alcaraz starts ATP Finals with victory over Alex de Minaur

Carlos Alcaraz opened the ATP Season Championships and the battle for the year-end No. 1 ranking in ideal fashion, confidently navigating a turbulent opening set before easing to a 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory against seventh seed Alex de Minaur in Turin.

Alcaraz, the top seed, tries to win the ATP Finals for the first time and hold off Jannik Sinner to end the season as the top-ranked player. Despite ceding significant ground to the Italian in recent weeks by losing to Cameron Norrie in his opening match at the Paris Masters, which Sinner won, Alcaraz still has a clear lead this week as the Italian defends his title from last year. The Spaniard must win all three of his round-robin group stage matches or reach the final to secure the top spot.

Although this has been the best season of Alcaraz’s career, he still has a lot to prove on indoor hard courts, where he has so far struggled to replicate his results on other surfaces. He won his first and only indoor title at the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam this year and his semi-finals appearance in 2023 remains his best result at this tournament.

During his first years on the tour, Alcaraz also often tired mentally and physically in the last weeks of the year to produce his best tennis.

However, he now looks fresh and sharp at the end of a tough season and he demonstrated that sharpness deep in the opening set tiebreak against De Minaur. Alcaraz was on course for an easy win early, taking a 4-1, 0-40 lead on the Australian’s serve. But De Minaur fought back admirably, forcing a tiebreak and taking a 5-3 lead.

As he has done so many times in his young career, Alcaraz buckled down mentally and found his very best with his back against the wall as he rolled through the final four points of the tiebreak to take the set.

“I think he played much better in the tiebreak,” Alcaraz said. “So I just tried to stay mentally strong, just to stay focused on the next point, stay focused on the goals that I had to pursue in the match.

“I am very happy that I have achieved good points since 3-5. In the second set the nerves were probably gone. I had a lot of fun playing my style and I am happy that I finally achieved it in two sets.”

While Ben Shelton and Alexander Zverev will headline Sunday night’s session, Alcaraz will meet the winner of the group stage match between Taylor Fritz and Lorenzo Musetti on Tuesday. Fritz and Musetti will not compete until Monday to give Musetti an extra day of rest after the Athens final on Saturday. Musetti lost that final to Novak Djokovic in three grueling sets, but Djokovic’s subsequent withdrawal from the ATP Finals secured his qualification.

Sinner, meanwhile, begins his title defense on Monday against Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime, the eighth seed.

There was also an opening victory for third seed Alexander Zverev, who saved three set points in the second to secure a 6-3 7-6 (6) victory against debutant Ben Shelton.

Zverev appeared to be in control of the match until the second set tiebreak, when Shelton led 4-0, 6-3 with a big helping, but the American could not take the match to a decisive decision.