For the second night in a row, the Australian turned his luck around after losing in the first round. This is his first ATP 500 title.
“It feels great, it feels amazing,” De Minaur said after his match.
“I know the hard work that’s put in to be here and it’s good to see the results. It’s not always that you win the tournament and you get to finish a week unbeaten, so I’ll definitely cherish this going into Indian Wells and Miami.”
He spoke of fighting back after his first round drop saying:
“Just to kind of stay in the match, especially in the second set… I just dug deep, managed to scrap my way through it.”
“And then the first game of the third set was exactly like my semi-final against Holger [Rune]. So I had that in the back of my mind, I just told myself to keep pushing. If I could keep pushing myself and get out of that game, the momentum was going to switch. I’m very happy I was able to get out of that.”
De Minaur has now moved to the Number 18 spot in the ATP World rankings, just three spots shy of his career-high rank of Number 15.
“Like everything in my career, it’s been step by step,” he said.
“I just want to keep pushing, keep getting the most out of myself. I know I might not play unbelievable tennis every day but I know I’m going to fight to the end.”
“I’ve got a whole lot of heart in this little body of mine and I enjoy competing, so I’m very happy with it.”