Alex de Minaur blames 'too much tennis' for early French Open exit
Australia's Alex de Minaur, known as 'The Demon', was beaten by Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in their second round clash on Court 14 at Roland Garros on Thursday.
It's very rare for De Minaur to lose a match after being two sets up.
After the match De Minaur was very raw when describing how the match was for him.
'It was obviously not a good day at the office.'
When asked about how he was feeling physically, De Minaur was brutally honest with where he is currently at.
'Look, I'm just tired. I'm tired mentally. I'm a little bit burnt out, if anything. A lot of tennis being played.
'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.'
It was a match that Alex de Minaur felt he lost rather than Bublik winning it.
'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.'
De Minaur admitted that when he is not at his best physically, things start to bother him when they normally would not be an issue.
'I think the biggest tell sign when I'm not feeling good or, like, I'm tired is me getting edgy on the court.
'Normally I win this match, as I said, nine times out of 10 based on my attitude. I don't let anything that he throws my way affect me.
'Today I was getting frustrated with myself, which ended up lowering my level.
'Then I got into an even bigger hole. I forgot how to serve there.
'It all became a little bit too much to the point where it was one of the few times in my career where I felt like, yeah, I don't see the solution today.
'I don't think today is going to be that day where I turn things around just because I couldn't mentally get myself up for it.'
Dave Marshall is covering the 2025 French Open in Paris exclusively for The South African website
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