Alex de Minaur has bowed out of his maiden ATP Finals in Turin with a third loss and nothing to show for his typically valiant efforts, except a seemingly painful reminder of his troublesome hip injury.
De Minaur, needing a win to keep alive his already wafer-thin hopes of making the semi-finals of the season-ending men's championship, ended up wincing in obvious discomfort near the end of his 5-7 6-4 6-3 defeat by Taylor Fritz at the Inalpi Arena.
Any recurrence of the left-hip problem that first derailed him at Wimbledon in July is of concern with the looming prospect of de Minaur being drafted into Lleyton Hewitt's Australia team at the Davis Cup in Malaga next week where he's slated to play USA's Fritz again in the quarter-finals.
