Alcaraz Beats Alex de Minaur 6-1, 6-4 for First Vienna Title, Stays Perfect at ATP 500s

Carlos Alcaraz beat Alex de Minaur 6-1, 6-4 on Sunday, Nov. 1, to win the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, his fourth title of 2026 and the 28th of his career. The 23-year-old Spaniard did not drop a set in five matches and needed 97 minutes to close out the final at the indoor ATP 500 event, according to the ATP Tour.

The win completed a perfect 16-0 season at ATP 500 tournaments for Alcaraz, who also won that level’s events in Doha and Tokyo this year, and it sends him to this week’s Rolex Paris Masters on a 26-match winning streak at the 500 level. He has not lost an ATP 500 match since falling to Holger Rune in the Barcelona final in April 2025, the ATP said.

How Alcaraz took apart de Minaur in the Vienna final

The first set was over in 37 minutes. Alcaraz raced to a 4-0 lead and took it 6-1, converting three of his four break-point chances, while de Minaur won only 13 of his 27 first-serve points in the set, Tennis Majors reported. The ATP noted that the Australian pushed five of the seven games in that set to deuce but could not hold off the Spaniard at the key moments.

De Minaur, ranked No. 10, stayed level for longer in the second set and saved a break point in each of the second, fourth and eighth games. He could not escape again at 4-5. On his first championship point, at 30-40, Alcaraz pulled de Minaur forward with a drop shot, lobbed him and closed with a forehand winner. Alcaraz won 81% of the points behind his first serve (29 of 36) for the match, according to the ATP.

“His style is really dangerous,” Alcaraz said of de Minaur, according to the ATP. “He’s really fast, so you have to earn every point. You might hit a winner against everybody, except him.”

The Associated Press noted that Alcaraz, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, has now beaten de Minaur on grass, clay and both indoor and outdoor hard courts. It was de Minaur’s third loss to Alcaraz in a final, after Queen’s Club in 2023 and Rotterdam in 2025, and his first indoor defeat of 2026 after 10 straight wins under a roof, according to Tennis Majors.

By the numbers: an ATP 500 season without a loss

Alcaraz’s week in Vienna was dominant but not effortless. He won 64 games and lost 42 across his five matches, a TBR calculation from the scores published by the ATP and Tennis Majors, counting tiebreak sets as 7-6. That works out to about 60% of all games played. Four of his five matches ended with a second-set tiebreak, including a 13-11 breaker against Nikoloz Basilashvili in the second round, and the final was his cleanest match: he won 12 of the 17 games, or about 71%, his best share of the week.

The title was his 11th at ATP 500 level since that tier began in 2009. Only Roger Federer (16), Novak Djokovic (15) and Rafael Nadal (15) have won more, according to the ATP’s list of series leaders. Alcaraz needs five more to match Federer’s record. He has now won 28 of the 37 tour-level finals he has played, a 76% conversion rate by TBR’s calculation from Tennis Majors’ figures, and he is 15-0 against Australians in tour-level matches, the ATP said.

A first Vienna crown, and a path to Paris and Turin

Vienna was new territory. On his only previous visit, in 2021, Alcaraz lost to Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals. He is now the third Spaniard to win the Erste Bank Open, after Feliciano Lopez in 2004 and David Ferrer in 2015, and this was his second indoor title, after Rotterdam in 2025, according to Tennis Majors. His 2026 titles are the Australian Open, Doha, Tokyo and Vienna.

On Saturday, Alcaraz beat third seed Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 7-6 (2), avenging a loss to the Russian in the Indian Wells semifinals earlier this year. De Minaur reached the final by beating top seed Zverev 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4). Zverev, Tennis Majors reported, becomes world No. 1 on Monday.

Both finalists head to the Rolex Paris Masters with first-round byes. Alcaraz, who is already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, will open against Jiri Lehecka or Alex Michelsen, the ATP said. The stakes are higher for de Minaur. With Jannik Sinner out for the rest of the season, ninth place in the Race to Turin is the last qualifying spot, and de Minaur holds it with 3,210 points, one point ahead of Spain’s Rafael Jodar, according to Tennis Majors. The ATP Finals run Nov. 15-22.

“I’m proud to be standing up here and still fighting, so I’m excited for what’s left for this year,” de Minaur said during the trophy ceremony, according to Tennis Majors.

For more of the weekend’s national and global sports, see our recaps of USC’s 30-18 upset of No. 2 Ohio State and Brighton’s 1-0 win at Manchester City.

Sources

• ATP Tour: Alcaraz storms past de Minaur to Vienna title, completes perfect ATP 500 season, Nov. 1, 2026
• AP: Alcaraz beats de Minaur to win Vienna Open and clinch a fourth title this year
• Tennis Majors: Alcaraz makes light work of de Minaur to win his first Vienna title
• Tennis Majors: Race to Turin, de Minaur ninth by one point
• Tennis.com: de Minaur vs. Alcaraz, Vienna final scorecard