Alex de Minaur in action in the 2025 Vienna Open | Image Credits : Reuters
Alex de Minaur defeated Matteo Berrettini 6-1, 7-6 to seal a spot in the semi-final of the 2025 Vienna Open, where he will square off against top-seed Jannik Sinner.
The World No.7-ranked player completely dominated the first set as Berrettini kept on making errors. The Australian won five straight games to kick off the first quarter-final of the ATP World Tour 500 series tournament.
The Italian baseliner failed to find any sort of rhythm in his gameplay as de Minaur wrapped up the first set within 29 minutes. After failing to pounce on a set-point, de Minaur had another go at it. An unforced error by Berrettini gifted the third seed of the ongoing tournament his sixth game of the first set.
Berrettini started the second set as he finished the first with another unforced error, but bounced back well to win the first game of the second set. After winning two consecutive games, de Minaur lost his first game of the match while he was serving. Berrettini took advantage of a break point situation by building pressure on his Australian counterpart.
After getting into a 3-2 lead in the second set, Berrettini was looking to extend his lead and tighten the grip on the second set, but de Minaur bounced back by staging a comeback to make it 3-3 and further extended it to 5-3 in his favor.
de Minaur then had the chance to win the match point by bagging his fifth break point of the quarter-final encounter. However, Berrettini once again showcased resilience and the ability to bounce back from tough situations and won three consecutive points to keep the battle going.
While Berrettini grew into the game with his powerful backhand and forehand strokes, de Minaur got wary and made many uncharacteristic unforced errors, allowing the Italian to take a 6-5 lead.
After de Minaur’s act of throwing the set point away, it was Berrettini's turn to do the same as de Minaur made it 6-6 to take the set to a tie-break. On his fourth attempt to seal the match point, the Australian finally sealed the deal, winning the tie-breaker 7-4.
Despite having a lower serve accuracy compared to his opponent throughout the match, de Minaur won more points than his Italian counterpart while he was serving, displaying his agility and speed on the court.
de Minaur has now made it to the semi-final of the Vienna Open for the second consecutive season. The Australian would be hoping for a better outcome this year after losing to Karen Khachanov in two straight sets in the last edition of the ATP 500 tournament.
With the win against Berrettini, de Minaur has now won 40 matches on hard courts in 2025, and the familiarity with which the World No.7 operates on hard courts could prove to be troublesome for Sinner. The 2025 Wimbledon champion made it to the semi-final to face de Minaur after beating Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-4 later in the day.
