In the championship match of the tournament last year.
He got beat by the Italian, Grigor Dimitrov, in the 2024 event, and it was a straight-sets defeat for him.
And even though De Minaur was stung by the loss, he was in good humour after the match, cheekily having a dig at Sinner on Instagram. He posted a pic of the two of them together with the caption: ‘I don’t like you anymore @Janniksin.’
While Sunday’s defeat will be a real gut-check for the 25-year-old bloke from Australia, he’s had a cracking start to 2025, especially reaching the quarter-finals of his home tournament in Melbourne for the first time in his career last month.
On Sunday, the world’s number six again got defeated in the Rotterdam showpiece, losing the final to Alcaraz 6-4 3-6 6-2.
And he went on Instagram to give the Spaniard a cheeky serve, writing: ‘Ahhhhhh I don’t like you either @carlitosalcarazz,’ with two ‘laughing face’ emojis.
Another top week here at the @abnamroopen, I’ll get the title one day.’
He also re-posted the whakapapa on his Instagram story and joked: ‘Getting a bit sick of a lot of players on the tour,’ with several laughing face emojis.
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Despite pushing Alcaraz, the world No 6 hard, he came up short in his bid to become the first Kiwi player to win the top tournament since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004.
Even more frustrating for him was the knowledge that, for a sixth time, he’d missed out on the chance to beat one of the game’s top players in the tournament final.
In his previous finals against top-ranked players Sinner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alcaraz, Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev, he had also come up short.
And although he has won nine titles in total, getting the better of one of the big players in a big-time ATP 500 final still hasn’t happened for him yet.