Alex de Minaur reflects on win over Liam Caruana, NextGen Finals format

• Tennis News

Australian rising star Alex de Minaur was in great spirits following his easy NextGen ATP Finals win over Italian Liam Caruana 4-1 4-1 4-2. The Australian broke the Italian twice in the first set and once in the second set to take a comfortable 2-0 set lead.

Wildcard Caruana, ranked at No. 622 in the world, won the opening game of the third set but got broken in the third game as world No. 31 de Minaur held on to his serve to clinch the win. "It was great! My first appearance here in Milan at the NextGen Finals, I've had a great year and I’m just enjoying every second of it.

I couldn’t think of a better start today," de Minaur said following his win, per Aussie Tennis Talks. "I actually played him (Caruana) in juniors funnily enough a while back, and it was actually here in Italy as well! The main thing was just to be really intense." De Minaur also gave his thoughts on the format used at the NextGen Finals event.

"With this format every single point counts, so you’ve gotta be there point in and point out and try take care of your service games, and not get into too many of those awkward sudden death deuces, because that can only mean trouble.

Just play aggressive and have some fun here," de Minaur underlined. Also read: Karen Khachanov: Beating world No. 1 to win Masters title means world to me