A devastated Alex de Minaur believes his latest Grand Slam disappointment was down to him and had nothing to do with his coaching team.
De Minaur exited the tournament on Monday with a 7-5, 7-6(4), 6-3 loss to Flavio Cobolli, who is through to his second consecutive quarter-final at SW19. The Australian struggled to capitalise on his chances throughout the match. In the second set, he was leading 5-2 before losing five games in a row. Then, in the third set, he was a break up twice before dropping four games in a row.
“It breaks me inside. That’s the reality of it,” de Minaur said of his inability to seize his chances.
“Many, many hours get put into my craft, and countless years to kind of have moments like these. To not step up, it’s truly gut-wrenching. It’s very tough.”
Despite an admirable record at major events with eight quarter-final appearances, de Minaur is at a loss about how he can take the next step. It is the fifth time in a row he has lost at a Grand Slam by either winning the opening set and then losing the next three, or losing in straight sets.
“It just feels like they keep on coming. It’s not easy to take,” he said about suffering painful losses such as the one against Cobolli.
“You go through moments in your career, times where you feel that there’s opportunities to be taken to make it to the next level and to become an even better version of yourself.
“You start doubting whether you’re going to be able to break through and kind of take it to the next step.
“I’m in a great position but the fact that I want more and I’m not able to achieve more, it’s a battle that I deal with every day.”
Despite being 27, De Minaur is in danger of reaching a crisis point in his career. He is currently ranked sixth in the world with 11 Tour-level titles to his name, one of which was won earlier this year in Rotterdam. Rotterdam was also the last tournament where he defeated a top-10 player.
Despite these successes, the Australian admits his self-belief is starting to diminish, with his Wimbledon exit adding to his doubts.
“The goals, the beliefs, the dreams that you have, they kind of start fading away or they feel a little bit further away than when they once were,” he said.
“I feel like a couple of years ago, I was definitely closer. Now it just feels like I’m getting a little bit further away from those dreams.”
De Minaur has no intention of walking away from the sport. Even if his latest loss ‘hurts like hell.’ As for the root causes of these heartbreaking defeats, he dismissed the suggestion that it is linked to his team. He has been coached by Adolfo Gutierrez since childhood.
“It all comes down to myself and how I’ve dealt with certain situations,” he states.
“We practiced before the tournament started and the issue is playing this match and playing like I’ve got the weight of the world on my shoulders. That’s the issue. It gets brought up on myself.
“I need to deal with it better, because if not, I’m just not going to be able to achieve the goals and dreams I’ve got.”
