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Journalism of Courage
World No. 7 Alex de Minaur has conceded that he needs to work with his team to find a way to close out matches, instead of losing them from winning positions. The Australian failed to serve out his Jimmy Connors group stage match at the ATP Finals in Turin on Wednesday, going down 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 to Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti to dent his semi-final qualification chances.
It was his second loss of the group stage, and he admitted that such defeats were “killing” him mentally.
“I don’t know how many times I can deal with a loss like this one. I just have to talk to my team and try to sort out these issues because these are issues that can’t keep happening.”
“I mean, if I really want to be serious about taking the next step in my career, these matches, I can’t lose them. I just can’t. It feels like I’ve lost a lot of them this year. More than anything, it’s getting to a point where mentally it’s killing me,” de Minaur said.
The 26-year-old said that he was giving it his all in such matches and admitted that not getting the desired results for his efforts was starting to affect him.
“I keep putting everything into these matches. When the result’s not there, it’s hard to keep pushing through. It’s something that if it doesn’t get sorted, it’s going to eat me alive. I need to get it sorted sooner rather than later,” he said.
de Minuar will face American Taylor Fritz on Thursday, while Carlos Alcaraz will face Musetti later in the evening. The Spaniard is on top of the group with two wins and a 4-1 win/loss set record. His rival, Jannik Sinner, leads the Bjorn Borg group, with the same number of wins and a 4-0 win/loss set record.
