Alex De Minaur agonisingly missed out on clinching his first victory of the year on Sunday as the Aussie star was beaten in the final of the ATP500 in Rotterdam this weekend by Carlos Alcaraz.
Agonisingly for De Minaur it was his second-successive defeat in the Rotterdam final, with the 25-year-old Aussie being bested by Jannik Sinner in the final of last year’s tournament.
During that event, he had impressively pushed his way past Sebastian Korda, David Goffin, Andrey Rublev and Grigor Dimitrov in the 2024 event, only to suffer a straight-sets defeat by the Italian in the final.
And despite the pain of the defeat, De Minaur was in jovial spirits after the match, cheekily poking a dig at Sinner after the match on Instagram. He published an image of the pair together with the caption: ‘I don’t like you anymore @Janniksin.’
While Sunday’s defeat will be a tough one for the 25-year-old Aussie considering the circumstances, he has enjoyed an impressive start to 2025, notably reaching the quarter-finals of his home slam for the first time in his career last month in Melbourne.
On Sunday, the world No 6 again suffered defeat in the Rotterdam showpiece, losing the final to Alcaraz 6-4 3-6 6-2.
Alex De Minaur (left) delivered a funny dig at Carlos Alcaraz (right) after he suffered defeat in the Rotterdam ATP500 final on Sunday
De Minaur lost in three sets to Alcaraz and took to Instagram to write: ‘Ahhhh I don’t like you either @carlitosalcarazz’ having suffered defeat in the final of the same event in 2024
It appears the message was a hilarious reference to his previous dig at Jannik Sinner (left) after the Italian bested the Aussie in straight sets during last year’s ATP500 in rotterdam
And he took to Instagram to hilariously throw a jibe at the Spaniard, writing: ‘Ahhhhhh I don’t like you either @carlitosalcarazz,’ adding two ‘laughing face’ emojis.
‘Another great week here at the @abnamroopen, I’ll get the title one day.’
He also republished the post on his Instagram story and joked: ‘Starting to not like too many players on the tour,’ with several ‘laughing face’ emojis.
Unfortunately for the Aussie, he once again suffered that sinking feeling of losing a big ATP final to a top-10 opponent as he succumbed to last year’s US Open winner, Alcaraz, in three sets despite a typically courageous fight.
Despite stretching Alcaraz, the world No 6, fell short in his quest to become the first Aussie player to win the prestigious tournament since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004.
Even more frustratingly for him was the knowledge that, for a sixth time, he had missed out in his bid to defeat one of the game’s elite in a tournament final.
In previous finals against top-tenners Sinner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alcaraz, Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev, he had also come off second-best.
And though he has won nine titles in all, defeating one of the big boys in a high-category ATP 500 tournament final keeps eluding him.
De Minaur made the same joke on his Instagram story, writing: ‘Starting to not like too many players on tour’
Despite the defeat, De minaur has enjoyed a great start to 2025, having recently reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the first time in his career
Though disappointed by the defeat, he said he remained hungry to one day clinch the title in Rotterdam
De Minaur admitted that while he was disappointed by the defeat, he was still pushing to improve his game.
‘It’s been a lot of improvements in my game over the last couple of years, and I’m going to keep on pushing for more,’ he said to fans inside the stadium.
‘It’s been two years now with this runner-up trophy – I’m hoping I’ll get my hand on the winner’s one day.’
He had high praise for his conqueror, though, as he turned to Alcaraz and told him he had been ‘too good’ again.
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