“I was able to get my mojo back”: de Minaur falls to Alcaraz in the Vienna final after the hardest six months of his career

6-1, 6-4 against Carlos Alcaraz: the fifth seed fell short in the final, but beat Alexander Zverev on the way to become the first Australian finalist in Vienna and moved to ninth in the Race to Turin.

1 November 2026

Cédric Rouquette

Alex de Minaur, Basel 2026 | © Gepa / PsNewz

For most of his career, Alex de Minaur’s greatest weapon was that he never went missing. This season, for the first time, he did. On Sunday in Vienna, the Australian lost the Erste Bank Open final to Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, 6-4, but he left the Stadthalle with clear proof that the player he had lost was back.

“I had a tough six months, something which I had not experienced in my career before,” de Minaur said. “Something that you could always count on me for was consistency and showing up every day, and I lost a little bit of that. But I’m glad that I was able to find it again.”

The fifth seed’s week said as much. On Saturday he beat Alexander Zverev 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4), his first win over the German outside team events after eight defeats, on the eve of Zverev becoming world No. 1. That made him the first Australian to reach the final in the tournament’s history, and brought his 21st ATP 500 win of the season. Only three men had reached that mark in a season since the series began in 2009.

The run also lifted him past Rafael Jodar to No. 9 in the Race to Turin. It was his third straight semi-final in Vienna.

De Minaur back to his best after the hardest six months of his career

The way back, he said, ran through team events. “It took a couple of team events to get me going again, Davis Cup followed by Laver Cup, and then I was able to get my mojo back,” de Minaur said. “I thought in Beijing I played some great tennis, and then in Shanghai I was able to put in a pretty good result with my limitations. I’ve had a lot of stuff happen off the court, but I was still able to come out here, play a great event, ultimately get to a final, and have another solid week going into the end of the year.”

The final was a second chance against the same opponent. De Minaur also lost to Alcaraz in the 2025 Rotterdam final, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, and he said the Spaniard was a different player in Vienna. “They’re both indoor events, but still different conditions, and that plays a little bit into it,” he said. “I think it’s a lot harder to rush him. In these conditions he’s able to absorb the pace really well and still be able to redirect his shots.”

He also had his chances early. “The start I had: game points, break point, game point in the first couple of games, and they didn’t go my way,” he said. “And then all of a sudden he freed up a lot and played some, I thought, sensational tennis. I think he hit his backhand down the line really, really well today, and that made it quite difficult. I could have been a little bit sharper in certain moments, but I thought he played at a much higher level than he did in Rotterdam.”

He now trails Alcaraz 7-0 in their head-to-head. Asked whether he hoped to go one step further in Vienna next year, he pointed to the title he won in Rotterdam in February. “If I could do the same thing that I’ve done in Rotterdam, that would be great,” he said. “I would have liked to have done a little bit more today, but all in all I think it’s a positive week.”