Alex De Minaur believes the ATP schedule should be shortened as he lost from two sets up to Alexander Bublik.
The Australian was in a dominant position against Bublik when he went two sets up, seemingly heading towards a place in the third round.
However, things turned very quickly as De Minaur lost 2-6 2-6 6-4 6-3 6-2 and exited Roland Garros at the second round stage.
Speaking after the match De Minaur admitted it was a bad day at the office and spoke about how he lost the match more than Bublik won the match, “Obviously not a good day at the office. Yeah, one of those matches that kind of just slipped away without a whole lot of meaning. Yeah, just not a good day,” De Minaur opened his press conference by saying.
“I think I lost that one. I mean, yeah, probably looking back at my Grand Slam career, I can’t think of another match where, yeah, I felt this way and I ended up losing a match that I probably by all means shouldn’t have.
“Look, not to give credit away from Bublik, he’s extremely dangerous, but saying that, I was also two sets to love up. This is a match that, yeah, I win 99.9% of the times. Today was just the odd occasion that it slipped away.
“I feel like if I can come up and put in the level that I know I can, I don’t lose that match.”
A disappointing day for De Minaur who put his defeat down to fatigue and feeling burnt out.
It’s something the Australian is taking responsibility for but also believes the calendar needs to be shortened in order to avoid these instances, “I’m just tired. I’m tired mentally. I’m a little bit burnt out, if anything. A lot of tennis being played,” De Minaur said about the defeat.
“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 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 losing really matches that I shouldn’t be losing. Saying all this, obviously have to have a hard chat with the team and analyze everything that’s been happening, kind of find a reason of why this happened today.
“I mean, no one’s got a solution. But the solution is simple: you shorten the schedule, right? What’s not normal is that for the last three, four years I’ve had two days off after Davis Cup, and I’ve gone straight into pre-season, straight into the new season again.
“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 way it’s structured, as Casper put it out there, I had to deal with that. I’m still dealing with that right now, right? My ranking right now consists of two zeros because I was injured and I couldn’t play Cincinnati, Montreal – well, three – and Shanghai, which is ridiculous if you ask me, right?
“That’s just the rules of the tour and where we are right now. 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.”
De Minaur isn’t the only player who has struggled with fatigue and injuries with Casper Ruud suffering a knee injury during his defeat to Nuno Borges.
Now the Australian will look to recover as he prepares for Wimbledon where he reached the semi-finals last year before withdrawing.
