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Alex de Minaur’s decision to skip Davis Cup duty has paid immediate dividends as he became the first player to reach the Rotterdam final three years in a row.
Australia’s world No.8 beat Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-3 to pave the way for a rematch of his US Open quarter-final clash with Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, who dropped only three games in demolishing Kazakh Alexander Bublik.
Alex de Minaur created history in becoming the first player to reach the Rotterdam final in three straight years.Credit: AP
But there was nothing easy about de Minaur’s passage to the final ahead of his bid to exact revenge against Auger-Aliassime, leapfrog the Canadian to snatch back the No.6 ranking, and win his maiden Rotterdam title.
Grand slam champions Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz defeated de Minaur in the past two finals at the indoor event in the Dutch city, but the Australian at least managed to pinch a set from the latter last year.
After surviving a three-set cliffhanger against local favourite Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarter-finals, top-seeded de Minaur staved off 10 break points without dropping serve to squeeze past Humbert.
“I’m super proud of the effort,” de Minaur said.
“Again, [there were] a lot of tough moments, a lot of break points, and a lot of tricky situations, but I managed to dig myself out of them, and I’m super pumped to be here in another final. I’ve given myself another chance of, hopefully, getting the title.
“Not every match you get the chance to be aggressive, and today [against Humbert] was certainly one that I was unable to do that, but hey, I found a way, and onto the next.”
De Minaur opted not to play in Australia’s first-round Davis Cup qualifier against Ecuador shortly after the Australian Open as he bids to avoid recurring injuries and the burnout that briefly threatened to derail his 2025 season.
The hope was that Australia’s team of back-ups, which also was without Alexei Popyrin, would still be good enough to hold off Ecuador – but instead Lleyton Hewitt’s squad suffered an embarrassing defeat on clay.
De Minaur has had to fight hard to survive his past two opponents in Rotterdam.Credit: AP
They will now have to overcome a Poland team spearheaded by Hubert Hurkacz and Kamil Majchrzak in Australia in November to retain their coveted World Group spot.
De Minaur, who turns 27 on Tuesday, is expected to play in that tie.
He established himself in the past two years as Australia’s best men’s player since Hewitt, and someone who regularly reaches the latter stages of majors, including making a seventh grand slam quarter-final at last month’s Australian Open.
De Minaur is yet to crash through that barrier at the slams, with his New York showdown last year with Auger-Aliassime representing his best hope to do so.
It was only the second time de Minaur faced a lower-ranked opponent in a major quarter-final, but he was still dealing with a serious hip injury in the other one against Brit Jack Draper in their last-eight match at the US Open in 2024.
Auger-Aliassime won that day, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), denying the ultra-consistent de Minaur from a career-best result.
His other grand slam quarter-final conquerors were Alcaraz, Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem, while the aforementioned hip injury stopped him taking to Wimbledon’s centre court to face Novak Djokovic at the same stage in 2024.
That is why tournaments such as Rotterdam – an ATP 500-level event – are important to de Minaur’s bigger picture.
De Minaur is one of the most reliable top-10 stars.Credit: Chris Hopkins
Not only would a victory in the final catapult him above Auger-Aliassime and back to his equal career-high ranking of No.6, but it would also pull him within 355 points of fourth-ranked German Zverev.
A top-four ranking would guarantee de Minaur does not play a lower-ranked opponent until the semi-finals of a grand slam, and delay match-ups against Alcaraz, Sinner or Djokovic until the last four.
But Auger-Aliassime promises to be a mighty challenge, particularly on an indoor hardcourt.
No one has more match wins in those conditions since 2020, and he has also won the most titles on that surface in the past four years. Auger-Aliassime won the 2022 Rotterdam title.
De Minaur committed 11 double faults and landed only 42 per cent of his first serves in his four-hours-plus US Open quarter-final loss to Auger-Aliassime, so he will have no shortage of motivation to claim his 11th ATP Tour title.
“It is very tough when you work so hard for something, and you constantly are putting yourself in positions to, in a way, prove people wrong,” de Minaur said at the time.
“But yet again, you kind of fall, and especially this time – it’s a tough one to take. I mean, there’s no beating around the bush. It’s one of those matches that I would love to play again.”
The Rotterdam final is scheduled for not before 1.30am (AEDT), following the doubles final.
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