Demon gets diabolical ATP Finals draw ... with Sinner

Alex de Minaur faces the tallest of orders on his ATP Finals debut, having to tackle his nemesis Jannik Sinner in front of the Italian's adoring fans on the opening night of the showpiece event in Turin.

De Minaur, the first Australian to compete in the men's tour's end-of-season championship for two decades, has never beaten the world no.1 in seven attempts and can hardly line up in Sunday night's match at the Inalpi Arena with much hope of ending the wretched five-year sequence.

In Thursday's draw, 'Demon' has been placed alongside Sinner, as well as former Finals champion Daniil Medvedev and American Taylor Fritz in the 'Ilie Nastase Group', named after the first ATP world No.1.

Only the top two of the quartet will qualify for the semi-finals, leaving de Minaur likely to be needing wins against Medvedev and Fritz if he wants to make the last-four, since his record against Sinner is so discouraging.

In those seven contests with the Italian, de Minaur has only taken one set - and that was four years ago.

Yet this has been a year when de Minaur has been making huge breakthroughs. Earlier in 2024, he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in Acapulco, for the first time after 10 defeats, leaving him to reprise the old Vitas Gerulaitis joke: "No-one beats Alex de Minaur 11 times in a row."

He also has a losing record against Medvedev (3-6) but did defeat the Russian at the French Open this year in his breakthrough run on the Roland Garros clay.

The Australian world No.8 does, however, lead world No.6 Fritz 5-3 in their head-to-head, having won their only clash this season.

Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have been placed in different pools, with Spain's Wimbledon and French Open champion drawn alongside Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev in the 'John Newcombe Group' - named in honour of the Aussie great who was the ATP's second world No.1.

Sinner (Australian Open and US Open) and Alcaraz split the year's four grand slam titles between them, and will be favourites to meet in the final.

Sinner got to the championship match last year, only to be beaten by Novak Djokovic, but the 24-time grand slam champ announced earlier this week that he would not be defending his crown.

"It's strange to not see Novak here, just because of all the success he had," Zverev said.

"The first time I won in 2018, you had to beat both or at least two of the three players. I beat Federer in the semis and then I beat Djokovic in the finals. You had to beat those guys to have a chance at the title. So it does feel different.

"But I feel like now with Jannik and Carlos it kind of moved toward the same way, just with new guys. You have to go through them to win big tournaments. It's as simple as that."

De Minaur is not the only Australian in action in Turin, with US Open champions Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell making up an all-Sydney outfit in the doubles competition.

They'll open up the whole tournament on Sunday against Dutchman Wesley Koolhof  and Nikola Mektic.

Australia's Olympic doubles champ Matt Ebden will also be partnering 44-year-old Indian veteran Rohan Bopanna.