Carlos Alcaraz battles Lorenzo Musetti for double prize in Nitto ATP Finals group finals | ATP Tour

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Alcaraz battles Musetti for double prize in Nitto ATP Finals group finals

De Minaur must beat Fritz in straight sets to stay in the semi-finals

November 12, 2025

Two singles semi-final spots will be decided at Thursday’s Nitto ATP Finals as the Jimmy Connors group round-robin tournament concludes.

If Carlos Alcaraz beats Lorenzo Musetti, the Spaniard will top his group and claim the year-end ATP No. 1 spot awarded by the PIF, while Alex De Minaur will need a straight-sets win over Taylor Fritz, plus a victory for Alcaraz, to advance. After two games, Alcaraz leads the group with 2-0, followed by Fritz with 1-1, Musetti with 1-1, and De Minaur with 0-2.

In the doubles, the Peter Fleming group will also conclude on Thursday. Italy’s Simone Borrelli and Andrea Vavassori will try to complete the round robin flawlessly against the 0-2 team of Tim Puez and Kevin Kravitz, before top seeds Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool take on Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.

[1] Carlos Alcaraz(ESP) vs. [9] Lorenzo Musetti (Italy)
Alcaraz is one of the most fearless players on the ATP Tour, but the fearless 22-year-old admitted nerves could be a factor in the high-stakes clash with Musetti. Facing a smooth home favorite and an Italian crowd, Alcaraz knew exactly what was coming.

The win will send him into the semifinals with a perfect 3-0 record in the group stage and his second year-end No. 1 ranking in the PIF ATP Rankings, his first since 2022.

“I’m going to try not to think about it,” Alcaraz said after beating Fritz 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-3 in Turin on Tuesday. “It will be a very important game for me. I will try not to let nerves play a bad role in the game. I will think about my goals and think about feeling better than I did today.”

After defeating De Minaur on Sunday to win his third Nitto ATP Finals opener, Alcaraz won his first set against Fritz in Turin after dropping a set. He welcomed the rest day before the group finals as he discussed the physical and emotional strain of the nearly three-hour match. There is still a rest day waiting before the semi-finals, which is a luxury for the players in Bjorn Borg’s group.

Musetti prevailed in a brutal three-set match against De Minaur on Tuesday, fighting back from a break in the third set to claim a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 victory for his first win at the Nitto ATP Finals tournament. While he struggled physically at times, he fought back with “a big heart and a huge passion for this game” to the delight of the home fans.

“I’m a fighter,” Musetti said. “I have improved a lot mentally and I am pushing myself to the limit because I play against top players every game. The next game is against Carlos. I know how difficult it is, especially in this situation. I will enjoy and fight like today.”

Alcaraz and Musetti have met on some of the biggest stages this season, with Alcaraz sweeping their rivals in Monte Carlo, Rome and Roland Garros, winning titles in all three tournaments. Despite falling 6-1 to Alcaraz at the Lexus ATP Head2Head and losing six games in a row, the Italian has managed to defeat his opponent in two of his three matches this season, all on clay.

Both players are clay-court natives, although Alcaraz’s game has been more successful on hard courts. While Musetti may have home field advantage, the fast conditions favor the versatile Alcaraz. But at his best, Musetti is one of the few on the ATP Tour who can match Alcaraz’s power and artistry. After De Minaur’s thriller, can the Italians paint another masterpiece against the top seeds?

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[6] Taylor Fritz (USA) vs. [7] Alex De Minaur (Australia)
Despite both suffering heartbreaking defeats on Tuesday, Fritz and De Minaur still have a chance of advancing to the Turin semi-finals. Fritz controls his own destiny, reaching the Nitto ATP Finals knockout stage for the third time with a win. De Minaur needs a straight sets win to stay in contention and will then back Alcaraz to give him a win over Musetti on the night.

Fritz and De Minaur were both shaken after Tuesday’s game, with the Australian taking the loss particularly hard.

“If I really want to take the next serious step in my career, these games, I can’t lose them. I just can’t,” De Minaur said after losing 5-3 to Musetti in the final. “I mean, it feels like I’ve lost a lot of people this year. More than anything, it’s gotten to the point where it’s killing me mentally.”

To add insult to injury, De Minaur failed to secure his first victory in his two appearances at the Nitto ATP Finals. From his debut last season to this season, he has a record of 0 wins and 5 losses in Turin. After a career-best 55 wins this season, the Australian is keen to add at least one more to his tally, according to the Infosys ATP Win-Loss Index.

Fritz pushed Alcaraz to the ropes in the second set but failed to get another break point in the match after missing two break points in the marathon fifth game of the second set.

“I had a chance. I had everything I could ask for,” he reflected. “I would say, what’s frustrating is that most of the opportunities that come to mind are where I actually had the ball that I wanted to really attack and just didn’t hit it well enough.”

The American believed that his offensive counterattack created opportunities for counterattacks and he hoped to have more opportunities against De Minaur. While the Australian isn’t as aggressive as Alcaraz, he knows how to do damage on hard courts: his 42 wins on the court this season are the most on the ATP Tour.

The pair have a 5-5 Lexus ATP Head2Head record, but have not competed together since Fritz swept two late-season events at the Nitto ATP Finals and Davis Cup in 2024.

doubles action
The Peter Fleming Group rankings make Thursday very easy. Italians Borelli and Valvassori secured first place in the group with a perfect 2-0 record and a perfect 4-0 record, although they will still compete for important PIF ATP Doubles Ranking points and prize money against Kravitz and Puez, whose title defense will end in the round-robin stage.

Cash and Glasspool defeated the German team on Tuesday to win the year-end ATP doubles No. 1 title awarded by the PIF. They will face the third seeds Granollers and Zeballos in the quarter-finals: the winner of that night’s showdown will advance to the semi-finals as second place.