De Minaur bitter after his defeat against Alcaraz: "Against the best, you can't afford to miss those opportunities"

After a tight first set, the Australian let crucial points slip away against an unyielding Alcaraz. In the press conference, De Minaur bluntly admitted to missing the moments that make the difference at the highest level.

In his first match at the ATP Finals this year, Alex de Minaur once again fell to a stronger opponent. The Australian, world number 7, was defeated by Carlos Alcaraz 7-6, 6-2, despite a contested first set that could have turned in his favor.

In the press conference, De Minaur discussed those missed opportunities that allowed Alcaraz to prevail today:

"I know that Carlos is sometimes untouchable. But there are moments where, if you manage to hang in there, a few opportunities present themselves and you just have to seize them, right? I think that's exactly what happened in the first set. I was down 4-1, 40-0 in just a few moments without making any major errors.

I kept fighting and found a way to bother him. Then, all of a sudden, it was a match. 5-3 in the tie-break, then 5-4 with two serves to come... Again, these are opportunities, moments that you have to capitalize on against the best players in the world. Today, I wasn't able to exploit those chances and the match became very difficult."