WORLD number three Carlos Alcaraz picked up his 17th career ATP Tour title with a hard-fought three-set victory against new world number six, Alex de Minaur overnight. The Australian underdog – who was ranked eighth coming into the Rotterdam Open had not dropped a set all tournament, but was forced to take it to three sets after losing the opening one, during Alcaraz’s 6-4 3-6 6-2 victory.

Alcaraz had looked in trouble back in the opening round against Botic Van de Zandschulp needing to win in three sets, but since then, the top seed dropped six games across two matches, before again fighting past Hubert Hurkacz in the semi to post a three-set win there as well. The Australian had never looked like losing prior to the final, dropping no more than four games within a set, though was a break down early in the final.

He forced his way back into the contest with an incredible break to love game in the eighth game. That proved short lived however, with Alcaraz immediately breaking back for a second time to then go one up again and serve out the first set.

The second set had a different look to it though, with de Minaur adding more aggressive flair to the contest. He broke at the first opportunity to race to a 3-0 lead, and was able to hold serve throughout the set to send the match to a decider.

Despite Alcaraz’s best efforts early in the third set – where he had a break point in an epically long second game – he was forced to bid his time until the sixth game. There, the Spaniard broke to go 4-2 up, and had the confidence to hold comfortably, before a second break in the last game snatched the match back from the Australian.

Both players provided fans with some excellent tennis, though de Minaur was only able to hit the six winners compared to 13 unforced errors, while Alcaraz managed 11 and 22 respectively. The numbers showed how strong both players were defensively, and while de Minaur’s first serve percentage of 63 was far higher than his 41 per cent in the previous match, Alcaraz made life difficult to win points off the Aussie’s second serve.

While de Minaur is a great recovery player, he only managed 14 of 30 off his second serve (47 per cent), as Alcaraz broke four times to two during the match. In the end, Alcaraz’s ability to close out points quicker (54 per cent of rallies lasting three shots or less) was key in a match that went for an hour and 56 minutes.

“This week has been a really good week all together,” Alcaraz said post-match. “Putting in really good work. Coming here [not] feeling 100 per cent well with the cold but after every day I’m feeling better and better. Rotterdam has been a really special week for me. I was going to say not only for the title… yeah for the title as well, but for the support that I received here since the first day.

“It was the first time that I [was] playing here and you made it like I’ve been playing this tournament for a long time.”

It was not all doom and gloom for de Minaur who was pleased with his efforts despite having to settle for a runners-up trophy for the second successive year.

“We’re pushing for bigger and better things,” he said. “It’s been a lot of improvements in my game over the last couple years and I’m going to keep on pushing for more. It’s been two years now with this runner-up trophy. I’m hoping I’ll get my hand on the winners’ one day.”

2025 ROTTERDAM OPEN FINAL RESULT:

[1] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) defeated [3] Alex de Minaur (AUS) 6-4 3-6 6-2