Alex de Minaur airs complaint amid brutal development for Aussie and fiancee
Alex de Minaur has added his voice to calls for the tennis tours to reduce the amount of tournaments and matches being played throughout the year, after he and fiancee Katie Boulter were both knocked out of the French Open on Thursday night. De Minaur and Boulter were spotted in a sweet moment behind the scenes after his brutal five-set loss to Alexander Bublik in the second round at Roland Garros.
But the Aussie's fiancee didn't fare any better, thrashed 6-1 6-3 by Australian Open champ Madison Keys a short time later. It continued a trend in which both of them have never managed to go deep in tournaments they're playing at the same time.
World No.9 de Minaur suffered an extraordinary loss from two-sets up, going down 6-2 6-2 4-6 3-6 2-6 to his much lower-ranked opponent (62). He used his post-match press conference to slam the sport's governing bodies for the sheer volume of tennis the players have to play throughout the year to maintain their rankings points.
The 26-year-old said he's mentally and physically exhausted after a gruelling start to the year, bemoaning the "never-ending" season. "The solution is simple: you shorten the schedule, right?" he said.
"What's not normal is that for the last three, four years I've had two days off after the 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 24. So it's never-ending. The way it's structured ... I had to deal with that. I'm still dealing with that right now.
"The solution is you shorten, 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's season kicked off with the United Cup in December, which came just 33 days after the Davis Cup Finals marked the end of 2024. He echoed the complaints made by compatriot Jordan Thompson earlier in the week, who described the ATP schedule as "shit" and "just a joke".
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World No.7 Casper Ruud aired his own complaints after the two-time French Open finalist suffered an injury-hampered loss to Nuno Borges in the second round. Ruud likened the ATP's ranking system to a "rat race" in which players fee compelled to compete in mandatory events - even if they are carrying injuries - because they'll lose points if they don't.
"You feel you're obligated to play with certain rules that the ATP have set up with the mandatory events," he said. "You feel like you lose a lot if you don't show up and play ... the punishments are quite hard, in terms of everyone else will play, gain points, and you won't.
"If you don't play a mandatory event, they cut 25 per cent of your year-end bonus. You're forcing players to show up injured or sick, or whatever, when that's not what I think is very fair."
De Minaur was spotted being consoled by Boulter while cooling down in the gym after his loss. The British player joined her fiancee with a second-round exit after being thrashed by Keys on centre court.
Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur at Roland Garros ❤️ pic.twitter.com/8znjHxOu76
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 29, 2025
Elsewhere, Jannik Sinner ended the retiring Richard Gasquet's career with a one-sided victory, while Novak Djokovic continued his bid for a record-breaking 25th grand slam title by downing Frenchman Corentin Moutet in straight sets. On the women's side, second seed and former finalist Coco Gauff beat 2024 French Open girls' champion Tereza Valentova, after 18-year-old contender Mirra Andreeva also cruised through.
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