Alex de Minaur has played down his hopes of qualifying for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin despite winning through to the quarter-finals of the Vienna Open. De Minaur’s passage through to the last-eight in Austria was helped by an injury to Italian rising star Flavio Cobolli, who was trailing 7-6 (7-2) 3-1 when he had to retire with a right shoulder issue.

Australia’s No.1 men’s player was in command of the contest up until that point after taking out the first set tiebreak to edge a tense opening stanza. But de Minaur would have probably hoped to get a bit more tennis under his belt as he works back to full fitness off the back of a niggling hip injury that forced his withdrawal against Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon quarter-finals and flared up at the same stage of the US Open against Jack Draper.

Nevertheless, it was another important step forward for de Minaur in his bid to feature for Lleyton Hewitt’s Australia side at the Davis Cup finals which get underway next month. Hewitt indicated this week that the participation of the Aussie No.1 would hinge around his form and fitness over the next few weeks and de Minaur has been progressing nicely in Vienna up to this point.

The Aussie admits he’s still not quite back to full fitness but says he’s getting closer to some of the early 2024 form that saw him break into the top-10 for the first time in his career. “I think there was definitely a little bit of that (incremental improvement) today,” de Minaur said after the match.

“I felt a little bit more comfortable in the way I was playing, the way I was moving. All around, I was at a very good level… Obviously, I don’t want to finish the match like that (via his opponent’s injury withdrawal) by any means. I’m wishing Flavio a speedy recovery, he’s a hell of a player, hell of a talent and I’m sure the while tennis world wants to see him back on court as soon as possible.”

The victory was also another crucial step towards de Minaur’s hopes of playing the season-ending ATP Finals – reserved for the top eight players in men’s tennis. De Minaur is currently ninth in the ‘Race to Turin’ and has moved back to within 265 points of eighth-place Andrey Rublev, who’s also reached the quarter-finals of the other ATP event in Basel this week.

Alex de Minaur in telling admission about ATP Finals hopes

De Minaur needs a deep run in Vienna and also at next week’s big points-scoring event at the Paris Masters to qualify for his first-ever ATP Finals. But despite being just one place outside that all-important top-eight, the Aussie admits he’s more concerned about getting his body and form back into top shape, potentially with one eye on the Davis Cup.

“There’s still a lot of guys winning their matches too,” de Minaur said about his ATP Finals prospects. “I’m doing my best to focus on myself, and do the best I can. No big expectations – I don’t know how the body’s going to pull up, so I’m just taking it day by day and if I can keep on spending time on court, it’s a good thing.”

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Next up for ‘Demon’ is a potential banana skin match against Czech teenage star Jakub Mensik, who beat Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3 7-6 (9-7) to reach his fifth quarter-final of the year at the age of just 19. De Minaur, who’d beaten Cobolli comfortably at the Australian Open in January, was largely in control again in Vienna, with the Italian making 31 unforced errors after being hampered by his shoulder problem.

The Italian conjured up his best moments when de Minaur was serving for the first set at 5-4 and broke back to force the stanza into a tiebreak that de Minaur dominated. Cobolli called for the trainer after that set and it was no surprise when he pulled the pin on the match a short time later.

with AAP