Reviewing de Minaur's 2025 season: Is he being judged too harshly?

(Getty/Clive Brunskill)

Season 2025 has come to an end for Alex de Minaur, and it comes with a taste of both familiarity and the new.

A bold run to the semi-finals of the Nitto ATP Finals ended with a 13^th consecutive defeat to eventual champion Jannik Sinner.

In a match that had its moments for the Australian, break points early and strong serving, with an eye perhaps to what it might take to break through against what has been the great stumbling block for the nation's highest-ranked male in two decades.

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De Minaur finishes the year with a 56-24 Win-Loss record, his first 50+ win season in his career.

His run to the semi-finals in Turin makes him only the second Australian in 51 years to reach that stage of the ATP Finals. (Lleyton Hewitt did it three times in 2001, 2002 and 2004).

When analysing De Minaur's career, as he enters his theoretically prime years, we can't help but examine his record against the very top echelon; however, when tracking his steady improvement, the evidence is undeniable.

De Minaur made his first career quarter-final at Slam level at 21 in 2020 at Flushing Meadows.

It would take 14 Slam appearances for him to emulate that achievement, but he has now done it five times in his last seven. He has also reached at least the last 16 in eight of his last 10 majors.

In 2024, de Minaur hit a single-digit ranking for the first time in his career in the middle of February. He would spend 12 weeks of the year in single figures, and has expanded that to 39 weeks in 2025.

De Minaur has won just four of his 27 meetings with players ranked in the top 10 since January 2024. Yet two of those wins have come in his last six, and both in the last eight weeks, including a straight sets win over America's Taylor Fritz in Turin.

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Now 26, de Minaur feels he is getting closer to competing regularly against the world's best, as he seeks to turn quarter-finals into semi-finals and finals.

"I still think that I've got more to give," said de Minaur after the Fritz match.

"I haven't hit my peak just yet. I've also got to be careful with how much I push myself and how much pressure I put on myself because that's what gets me into dark places. The desire to keep on improving and keep on wanting more and expecting more. I've got to find a healthy balance."

He added: "As we've seen kind of in the past two matches, I do have the ability to play with a higher pace and more aggressive style tennis. I do think this is what needs to come out to beat the best players in the world."

Nine of the last 14 losses against top 10 opposition have come against either Sinner or Alcaraz, as de Minaur searches for that "aggressive" balance required to perhaps conquer what is the most difficult task for any player on Tour.

Summarising 2025 as a whole for the Australian paints an impressive picture.

Finishing consecutive seasons inside the top 10 points to consistency, as he also managed to close the year with the third most hard court victories on tour, behind only the 'Sincaraz' pair.

The season began with a maiden Australian Open quarter-final berth, a final in Rotterdam and the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000.

In the second half of the year, the world No.7 captured his 10th career ATP title in Washington, reached the quarters at the Canadian Masters and the US Open, notched his 300th career win and qualified for the ATP Finals for the second straight season.

"It's been another positive season for me. Obviously, staying in the top 10, top eight, is a good achievement. I won a lot of matches this year," he said after his semi-final loss to Sinner in Turin. 

But he hopes it's just the tip of the iceberg, sharing: "For me to take the next step, it's just being fresh, not putting as much pressure on myself and ultimately stepping up in the bigger tournaments. That's what it's going to take for me to jump from where I've been the last two years to potentially be in the top five and pushing for bigger and better things."

The legendary Kooyong Classic returns to the Australian summer of tennis in 2026 – 13^th-15^th January at the spiritual home of Australian tennis. The big names are coming – Musetti, Bublik, Khachanov, Berrettini, Hurkacz, Tien, Vekic, Hantuchovaand more. 

For all ticket and corporate hospitality enquiries head to www.kooyongclassic.com.au