Alex de Minaur Beats Berrettini to Reach Vienna Semis

Alex de Minaur won a tight first-set tiebreak and then pulled away from Matteo Berrettini, winning 7-6(4), 6-2 on Friday night to reach the Vienna semis at the Erste Bank Open. The match took one hour and 46 minutes.

The reward is a Saturday semifinal against top seed Alexander Zverev, who becomes world No. 1 on Monday. And for the Australian, a lot more than a spot in the Vienna final is riding on this week.

The Turin Math

De Minaur is chasing a third straight trip to the Nitto ATP Finals. Before Friday's match, AAP reported that a win over Berrettini would lift him past Rafael Jodar into ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin. With Jannik Sinner out for the season, ninth is the last spot in, so every match he wins right now carries real weight.

He got some help from around the tour, too. Flavio Cobolli, who was ahead of him in the race, retired in tears against Berrettini on Thursday, and Jodar was knocked out in Basel.

How He Got Here

This week did not start smoothly. De Minaur lost the first set 6-1 to qualifier Tomas Machac in his opener before fighting back to win 1-6, 6-4, 6-3. He looked a lot sharper against Learner Tien, winning 6-4, 6-2, and on Friday he handled a big server in straight sets again.

Berrettini took a strange road to this quarterfinal. He beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-4, then advanced when his close friend Cobolli retired trailing 5-2, with Berrettini staying by his side until he left the court. Friday was also a rematch of last year's Vienna quarterfinal, which de Minaur won before losing to Sinner in the semis.

Zverev Is the Mountain

Saturday is a big step up. Zverev needed just 58 minutes to beat Arthur Fery 6-0, 6-2 on Friday, and he has not dropped a set since saving four match points in his opener against Martin Landaluce. He won the French Open and the US Open this year, and he won this title back in 2021.

De Minaur lives on making opponents hit one more ball, and he will need every bit of that legwork against a guy who is playing as well as anyone on tour right now.

My Smacktok lean for Saturday: Zverev to win, but de Minaur to push at least one set deep. The Australian has won six straight sets since dropping the opener to Machac, and he has Turin on the line.

Win, and de Minaur puts a foot in the door in Turin. Lose, and the Paris Masters next week turns into a pressure cooker.