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Shattered de Minaur out of French Open

3 minute read

Shattered Australian No.1 Alex de Minaur has been unable to hide his frustrations after falling in the first round of the French Open in Paris.

ALEX DE MINAUR of Australia plays a shot against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan during Miami Open at the Crandon Park Tennis Center in Key Biscayne, Florida.
ALEX DE MINAUR of Australia plays a shot against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan during Miami Open at the Crandon Park Tennis Center in Key Biscayne, Florida. Picture: Al Bello/Getty Images

Alex de Minaur plans on taking a "long hard look in the mirror" following a soul-destroying first-round French Open loss in Paris.

De Minaur was gutted after blowing two set points in the opening tiebreaker, then dropping another tight second set in a 7-6 (11-9) 6-4 6-0 defeat to Italian qualifier Marco Cecchinato.

Cecchinato upended world No.1 Novak Djokovic en route to the semi-finals two years ago but that was of little consolation to the Australian No.1.

Barely a fortnight after charging to the quarter-finals on his favoured fast hard courts, de Minaur confessed to be in a "slump" having also lost in a third-set tiebreaker at last week's Italian Open to world No.97 Dominik Koepfer.

"I'm not happy with where I am, not happy with what I'm showing on court, so it's a little bit demoralising in itself that I can't come out and play the tennis that I want to and that I know I can," de Minaur said.

"So, look, it's something that I've got to have a long hard look at myself in the mirror and figure out what's happening, and basically just fix it and get back to where I want to be."

A young man in a hurry, the 21-year-old said his demons were all upstairs.

"I've had two matches that I missed out on countless opportunities," said the shattered world No.28.

"And I believe that it was exactly winning those matches is what I needed to gain some confidence and some momentum and be able to continue kind of that good tennis I had been showing.

"It's a pity because a sport like tennis is very based on results, everything. Mentally, it's a lot based on results.

"So you can do all the right things and be training well, be feeling physically fit, feeling mentally well, but if you go into a match and you're not getting those results, then it almost feels like nothing of that counts."

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