Alex de Minaur‘s hopes of qualifying for his first-ever ATP Finals have suffered a devastating blow after he was comprehensively beaten by Karen Khachanov in the Vienna Open semi-finals. The Aussie looked out of shape and flat as he was handed a one-sided beat down 6-2 6-4 at the hands of the Russian.

Khachanov carried on from where he left off in the Almaty Open in Kazakhstan, when he also beat a Sydneysider, Aleksandar Vukic, in the semi-finals on the way to the title. His win over World No.10 de Minaur marked his eighth triumph in a row in the past fortnight and it sets up a final against British No.1 Jack Draper, who earlier on Saturday beat Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-2 6-4 in the other semi.

But for de Minaur, though, his dogged effort and never-say-die attitude simply weren’t enough to get him to a fourth final of the year. De Minaur needed a win in Vienna to join the top eight players at the season-ending men’s championship in Turin next month.

His hopes of reaching the ATP Finals are now slim but still alive as he heads to the Paris Masters next week. De Minaur sits in ninth spot, one place behind Andrey Rublev. After just his third tournament since sustaining a hip injury at Wimbledon in July, de Minaur is relying on several results to go his way to make the ATP Finals. But realistically his sights will now either be on the Davis Cup finals with Australia or to regroup ahead of next year’s Australian Open.

Lleyton Hewitt handed Davis Cup selection headache

If de Minaur decides to target the Davis Cup finals, it will give Australian team captain Lleyton Hewitt an almighty headache. Hewitt indicated this week that the participation of the Aussie No.1 would hinge on his form and fitness over the next few weeks.

“He’s still giving himself a chance for Turin and obviously the Davis Cup Finals if he’s up for it,” Hewitt said. “A lot depends over the next month.”

Australia played the Davis Cup group stage without de Minaur and as it stands he won’t compete in November’s tie against the United States. Although Hewitt has consistently refused to rule out the possibility that he could be a late inclusion.

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The Aussies face a brutal draw in the finals, facing the United States first up who boast five men in the world’s top 20 – Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Sebastian Korda, Tiafoe and Ben Shelton. So Hewitt will have to seriously consider if de Minaur is worth the risk to include especially if he is as underdone as he currently appears to be.

As well as that De Minaur has strong competition in the Aussie fold, with two top-30 Aussie teammates, Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson in the team. While Thanasi Kokkinakis has been Hewitt’s go-to singles pick in the group stage and has been in outstanding form at the Davis Cup, not dropping a single match in the run to the finals. The Aussies also have the world-beating doubles pairing of Max Purcell and Matt Ebden and Hewitt will fancy his team to beat any team on their day, with or without de Minaur.

with AAP