‘Burnt out’ Alex de Minaur’s incredible grand slam streak comes to brutal end
Alex de Minaur’s impressive grand slam streak is over as his French Open defeat shone a light on a hard truth the Aussie must come to terms with.
Tennis
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Downcast after blowing a golden opportunity at the French Open, Alex de Minaur has declared he feels burnt out amid an increase in complaints from players concerned about the gruelling nature of the tour.
The No.9 seed was cruising against dangerous Kazakh Alexander Bublik at Roland Garros before losing momentum early in the third set on the way to a 2-6 2-6 6-4 6-3 6-2 defeat that left him bereft.
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It ensures de Minaur his worst result at a grand slam since Wimbledon 2023 after six straight slams where he had made the fourth round or better, including four quarter-finals.
With Adam Walton falling to Andrey Rublev 7-6 (1) 6-1 7-6 (5) later on Thursday, Alexei Popyrin is the sole Australian man left in the draw. He will play Portugal’s Nuno Borges in the second match on Crt 14 on Friday for a spot in the last 16.
A drained de Minaur said he felt fatigued after letting slip a significant advantage against the powerful but enigmatic Bublik, describing the manner of his loss as out of character. He vowed to review the defeat prior to the grass court season.
“Look, I’m just tired. I’m tired mentally. I’m a little bit burnt out, if anything,” he said.
“In a way, the good thing is that what’s happened today is something like a miracle, right, in the sense that I’m not known for these types of performances, or (for) losing a match like this from two sets to love up. I’m probably known for the opposite, which is just being consistent and not really losing matches that I shouldn’t be losing.
“Saying all this, (I’ll) obviously have to have a hard chat with the team and analyse everything that’s been happening (and) kind of find a reason of why this happened today.”
De Minaur has played 71 matches over the past 12 months dating back to his run to the Roland Garros quarterfinals last year, which makes him one of the busiest men on the tour. That includes a stint post Wimbledon where he was sidelined with an adductor issue.
He has already played 37 matches this year, with this just the second tournament for the season where he has not posted multiple wins.
The 26-year-old, whose winning strike rate of .696 is the eighth best over the past 52 weeks, lamented losing control of the match.
“Probably looking back at my grand slam career, I can’t think of another match where ... I felt this way and I ended up losing a match that I probably, by all means, shouldn’t have,” he said.
“Not to (take) credit away from Bublik, (because) he’s extremely dangerous, but saying that, I was also two sets to love up. This is a match that ... I win 99.9% of the times. Today was just the odd occasion that it slipped away.”
Bublik, for his part, quipped the reason he started so slowly was because he wasn’t used to firing at 11am.
Adding insult to injury for de Minaur, he would have faced qualifier Henrique Rocha for a spot in the last 16 after he ousted highly-talented Czech Jakub Mensik.
De Minaur suspects part of the reason for his fade out is his workload and added his voice to the concerns raised by players including Jordan Thompson and three-time major finalist Casper Ruud, who opted to take a break after the Australian Open.
“No-one’s got a solution. But the solution is simple. You shorten the schedule, right?” he said.
“What’s not normal is that for the last three (to) four years I’ve had two days off after Davis Cup (in late November) and I’ve gone straight into pre-season, straight into the new season again.
“Sure ... I could have maybe taken a week or a week and a half off. But that means my pre-season is two weeks long and I’m already starting in Australia, which is my home ground (and) where I want to be doing well. Once you start, you don’t finish until November 24th, right? So it’s just never ending. That’s the sheer fact of it.
“The solution is you shorten it, because what’s going to happen is players’ careers are going to get shorter and shorter, because they’re just going to burn out mentally. There’s just too much tennis.”
Critics would suggest some players do not do themselves favours by playing additional events and de Minaur features regularly in the Ultimate Tennis Showdown exhibitions.
This included a lucrative winning effort in London in December, an appearance at a historic colosseum in Nimes in the south of France and another one in Hong Kong in October.
The caveat is that the players would be training anyway and it is a way to further their income and branding in a low-stress environment that serves as a glorified practice session.
Either way de Minaur, whose place in the top 10 is in peril given the points he has lost, said he should have made the most of his advantage against Bublik.
It is only the third time in his career de Minaur has lost from two sets up, along with the third round of the 2018 US Open against Marin Cilic, and the fourth round of Wimbledon 2022 against Cristian Garin.
“Look, there’s no excuse, again, for ... what happened today,” he said.
“I need to look at myself in the mirror and find out the reasons, because ultimately this isn’t going to change. It doesn’t look like it’s going to change. I have to adapt and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Walton, meanwhile, battled hard against Rublev but was not able to find the points that mattered most in the two tiebreakers.
The Queenslander has done well to fortify his position in the top 100, a challenge he said was far more stressful than he realised after making the breakthrough last year.
“Obviously getting to the top hundred is one thing and then staying there’s another thing,” he said.
“I thought I rose to the top 100 pretty quickly. But then I hit a bit of a tough patch. So I really struggled when I got to the 100 to try stay there and it’s been a massive grind.
“But then I thought I did good strides in the pre-season and had another great start to this year. I’ve already bagged as many points as I did last year, so just hopefully now that I know what I’m walking into and playing the events for the second time round, that I can do a little bit better and have a bit of a free swing at the back end of the year.
“I don’t take it for granted. I know everyone’s trying to get inside 100, so you obviously have everyone trying to keep coming in. So it’s not easy to stay there.”
Originally published as ‘Burnt out’ Alex de Minaur’s incredible grand slam streak comes to brutal end
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