De Minaur took a first career title, beating Andreas Seppi in the Sydney final. The Italian veteran was actually up a break in both sets, but those were somewhat of an aberration they were his only breakpoints in the match. Ultimately this was De Minaur's to lose, with his hefty superiority on serve: 73% first serve vs 52%, and more potent with those he landed. From the baseline his movement and effort allowed him to to outlast Seppi, with the home crowd providing an extra edge when needed. "It's crazy that this actually happened," he said in the on-court interview. "I thought it wouldn't happen. Third time lucky, and you guys don't know how much it means to do it in front of all you guys, in front of my home." De Minaur 21w 33ue; Seppi 27w 41ue. De Minaur 7/5 7/6.
This was great to see this young talent win his first career title against a pretty good opponent in Seppi, it was never going to be an easy task for De Minaur but he outplayed Seppi on the day and deserved the win. I just hope that this hasn't taken a lot out of De Minaur just a couple of days before the Australian Open and that he had to play two matches on the same day. The organisers of the Sydney International got the scheduling wrong and something needs to be done next year.