NITTO ATP FINALS

November 12, 2024

Alex De Minaur

Inalpi Arena,Torino

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/A. de Minaur

6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Alex tough match. What could you have done differently today against Daniil?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, obviously a tough match with a tough result. I think it was a little bit of a combination of Daniil playing at a very high level today, being quite aggressive, which probably in previous matches that we've played against each other I haven't felt that come out of him. Obviously I could have been a little bit better and sharper in certain areas.

Yeah, it is what it is. I think that's what happened today.

THE MODERATOR: First question.

Q. Daniil was saying that he tried something different today that he hasn't been doing so much this year, at some points this year, and even changed something from his match the other day. What did you notice? I imagine you watched some video of his match against Taylor.

ALEX de MINAUR: This happens in tennis often, especially in later stages, even in group stages. You probably don't have a good match because you're playing with a lot of tension and nerves and expectations. Once that I guess bad match is out of the way, you almost play your next match a little bit in a sense of not caring as much. I say this in the best way possible.

I think that's what helped him today take a lot more chances than he had been in previous matches. He was a lot more aggressive. You could tell by his ball striking, he felt confident.

Yeah, he was obviously hitting a lot more winners, in my eyes, than he has been in previous matches.

Q. Looking back at this year, some tough injury luck, feels like a real breakthrough season for you. It also seems like you found some more firepower in your game. What were kind of the keys there? What do you see as the next steps for the following season?

ALEX de MINAUR: For the following season?

Yeah, these were the key aspects of my game that I needed to improve if I wanted to take it to the next step and crack into the top 10, beat the best players in the world.

As for next year, it's still working on the same things, right? Still working on the firepower, still working on the serve, trying to get a little bit more free points, better placement. Just keep on improving and tweaking the areas that I know need to be a little bit better to try and take it to these top-level players.

I think nowadays the average ball speed is going up and up it feels like almost every year. You just got to lift yourself and get to a level where you can do your best to hurt your opponents.

Q. Everybody is always complaining about the different balls tournament to tournament. Now people are saying - some of the players - that the quality of the balls has also gone down in general. Have you noticed that? How big of an issue is that from tournament to tournament?

ALEX de MINAUR: In my eyes, there's obviously going to be a lot of different opinions on this. A lot of different players like different types of balls, right?

You're stronger, heavy-hitting, more powerful players will want slow balls which they can hit as hard as they want and feel like they're not missing.

Players that use a little bit more feel and finesse, they probably want lighter balls because they'll be the only ones that can control that.

On what type of ball, I'm not really going to comment because there's going to be a lot of different opinions. But what I do believe, there's got to be a way better schedule with balls, right? You can't be playing different weeks with different balls back to back, in my eyes.

In an ideal world, I think you play everywhere with the same ball. That way you kind of get rid of all the complaining or having to get used to different conditions in different places with different balls.

I think also that way you take away the injury risk. If you go deep one week, then you have maybe a day for the next tournament, you're playing with completely different balls, it's so tough to get used to nowadays because ultimately everyone's so good.

Q. It's your first time at the ATP Finals. How would you rate the experience so far?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, of course it's been a goal of mine for a while to be able to qualify here for the year-end finals. It's kind of a reward for consistency throughout the whole year. That's something that I've always wanted to be a part of.

It's been an incredible experience so far, everything from just being here, the fans, how we get treated. Everything's been great except for my results so far (smiling).

Ultimately still got another match and still got plenty to play for. It's in my nature to go out there and give it 150% again. Hopefully I can finish off with some...

Q. Good feeling?

ALEX de MINAUR: ...good feeling, exactly (smiling).