Jannik Sinner beats Alex de Minaur to reach ATP Finals championship match

TURIN, Italy (AP) — Jannik Sinner has done his part. Now it’s up to Carlos Alcaraz to win one more match and set up another important final against his biggest rival.

Sinner beat Alex de Minaur 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday — improving to 13-0 against the Australian — to reach the championship match of the ATP Finals before his home fans.

The second-ranked Sinner is aiming to retain his title in the season-ending tournament for the year’s top eight players. In Sunday’s final, Sinner will face Alcaraz or Felix Auger-Aliassime, who were playing later.

Alcaraz already secured the year-ending No. 1 ranking but is seeking to reach his first final at this event.

Sinner and Alcaraz have met in the last three Grand Slam finals: Alcaraz beat Sinner in a fifth-set tiebreaker to win the French Open; Sinner gained a measure of revenge by beating Alcaraz for the Wimbledon trophy; then Alcaraz again came out on top at the U.S. Open.

Sinner also won the Australian Open — beating Alexander Zverev in the final — so he and Alcaraz each won two majors this year.

It’s the third consecutive final in Turin for Sinner, who hasn’t dropped a set at finals since getting beat by Novak Djokovic in the 2023 championship match — a run of 18 consecutive sets.

Sinner saved three break points in his opening service game after falling behind 0-40 and then finally managed to break De Minaur for a 6-5 advantage before serving the set out.

The second set was never really in question, as Sinner jumped out to a 4-0 lead.

“I was happy with how I served and with how I reacted in the important moments,” Sinner said.

Sinner extended his winning streak on indoor hard courts to 31 matches — also stretching back to that 2023 final against Djokovic. He hasn’t dropped his serve this week.

Sinner’s first pro victory over De Minaur came in 2019 in the final of the Next Gen ATP Finals. Sinner has won 29 of the 31 sets they’ve played.

“I know how to beat him. It’s just not that easy to do,” De Minaur said. “You’ve got to hit the ball very hard, very flat, very deep and very close to the lines. It is something that I try to do, but it’s obviously not the easiest thing to do … I need to serve well throughout the whole match. My serve dropped a little bit and could have been better.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis