Alex de Minaur on ATP finals loss: 'It's going to eat me alive'

Following his straight-set defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in his opening match in Turin, De Minaur needed to beat local hero Lorenzo Musetti in the second Bjorn Borg Group encounter to stay alive in the tournament.

After losing the opening set, the Australian showed incredible fight as he won the second set and then broke in the opening game of the decider to put himself in the driving seat, and he eventually came out to serve for the match at 5-4.

However, world No 9 Musetti broke back and after holding his own serve, he broke again to wrap up a 5-7, 6-3, 5-7 victory.

While the Italian and those at the Inalpi Arena celebrated wildly, De Minaur was left devastated as he suffered a 16th consecutive defeat against a top 10 player at ATP Tour level with his only win coming against Alexander Zverev at the Laver Cup.

A dejected De Minaur spoke to the press after the defeat and he could not hide his disappointment.

"I don't know how many times I can deal with a loss like this one," de Minaur said in Turin. "I just have to talk to my team and try to sort out these issues because these are issues that can't keep happening.

"I mean, if I really want to be serious about taking the next step in my career, these matches, I can't lose them. I just can't. It feels like I've lost a lot of them this year. More than anything, it's getting to a point where mentally it's killing me.

"I keep putting everything into these matches. When the result's not there, it's hard to keep pushing through.

"It's something that if it doesn't get sorted, it's going to eat me alive. I need to get it sorted sooner rather than later."

READ MORE: Glenrose Xaba takes home half a million at Spar Women’s 10km Awards