LONDON: Alex de Minaur says he has changed his perception when playing Grand Slam tournaments after opening up about struggling with mental fatigue.
The world No.11 is through to the third round at Wimbledom after coming back from a set down to beat France’s Arthur Cazaux 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-0. Admitting he had a ‘slow start’ on court, de Minaur turned his fortunes around with the help of 25 winners. It is the fourth time he has reached the last 32 at SW19 since making his debut in 2018.
In the past, de Minaur says he wouldn’t have been happy with his latest performance, but he now sees things differently after struggling earlier this season. After his second round exit from the French Open, he told reporters in Paris he was ‘running on fumes’ due to the relentless Tour schedule.
“Over the last couple of weeks, my mentality has been about taking small wins. Not worrying about the result as a whole, but trying to focus a little bit more on small wins,” he explained on Thursday.
“I look at this match, and probably the old me would definitely not be happy with the way I started. It’s not good enough. If I want to achieve certain results here, I need to lift my game, but the way I’m looking at it is that I’m happy. I reset. I found my game. I battled through.
“There were some tough moments there which I pushed through.”
Player mental health has been brought into the limelight at The All England Club after Alexander Zverev admitted he may need to seek therapy to help him. Others to speak about such issues in recent months include Andrey Rublev, who says looking at the root causes is important when dealing with mental health.
Another aspect for de Minaur to deal with is the emotions of his partner, Katie Boulter, who is also playing on the Tour. Boulter suffered a second round exit from Wimbledon on Wednesday to a lucky loser after beating Paula Badosa in her opening match.
“On my side, there’s the part of doing my best to comfort her and try to be there for her the same way she is there for me through the good stuff and the bad stuff,” he explains.
“It definitely does have a little bit of impact and you’ve got to do your best to have a mental reset and kind of shift your focus towards yourself. Realizing that you do have a match the following day that you’ve got to prepare for, it’s not going to be an easy one; it’s going to be a battle.
“I’s a lot of different aspects to deal with, which aren’t easy, I think I can get better at, but that’s experience.”
