'Difficult decision': Alex de Minaur opens up amid sad admission about fiancee
Alex de Minaur has made a sad revelation about his break from tennis and says even fiancee Katie Boulter couldn't help snap him out of a recent funk. De Minaur admits he was left 'mentally drained' and 'fatigued' after a brutal exit at the French Open last month, and needed some time out from the sport after deciding not to defend his Rosmalen grass-court title in the Netherlands.
The eye-opening move sees de Minaur lose valuable ranking points, pushing him outside the top-10 where he's been an almost ever-present fixture for more than eight months. The decision could affect his seeding for the upcoming Wimbledon championships and make life more difficult for Australia's top-ranked male at the All England Club.
But de Minaur insists he was in such urgent need of a break after struggling mentally and physically in the wake of his heartbreaking French Open exit. The Aussie suffered an extraordinary loss from two-sets up, going down in five sets to 62nd-ranked opponent, Alexander Bublik, in a shocking capitulation.
"Obviously, I'm doing a lot better now," de Minaur told AAP at the prestigious Queen's Club, where he returns to action against Czech Jiri Lehecka on Tuesday. The Aussie said he needed a 'reset' from the sport and a 'week of doing nothing' related to tennis, and that even a hit-out with his fiancee on the London grass courts failed to lift his spirits.
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"After Roland Garros, it was definitely a week of doing nothing, having nothing to do with tennis. That's very rare for me, very rare. I can't remember the last time I did that," de Minaur revealed. "It felt quite weird because I did try to help Katie as a hitting partner in practice and I just didn't enjoy it at all. And I was like 'I can't remember the last time I haven't enjoyed having a hit on the grass'.
"So that was a little bit of a false start, and then I decided to take three more days off and since then, I've been building and feeling better and better, and now I'm very excited to get started." De Minaur said it was important for him to live the life of a "normal human being" again and was just happy to go out for coffees and dinners, as well as visiting parks to relieve the stress.
"Anything I would define as being a normal human being and having a normal human being's life, instead of obsessing about tennis 24/7," he said. "In a way, the defeat (at the French Open) helped me kind of get a little bit of perspective on why certain things were happening. I realised I was quite mentally drained out and fatigued.
"So I've used these two weeks since to disconnect from the game a little bit and make sure I come back to competing with the same energy that I'm known for." De Minaur has been able to enjoy having a base in London with Boulter for the whole month and says it's helped put him "in the right headspace" again, even if the decision not to defend his grass-court title in the Netherlands could come back to bite him.
"It was a difficult decision not to defend my title, but it wasn't only the mind, but the body that was a little battered up. My shoulder didn't feel amazing," he said. "But the way I looked at it - and what is healthy for me - is to stop obsessing about rankings and whether I go up or go down every week, and try to go back to a place where I'm just enjoying playing tennis and not thinking about all those outside factors, because it just gives added stress.
"I've got to start having a little bit more of a mentality of a big player and start backing myself to not have to play so many tournaments, and to hopefully do well in the big events. Mentally, I do feel I'm in the right spot, and even if it doesn't bring results this week, I'm confident that it will help me in the long run."
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However, Connors had other ideas and returned the 19-year-old's serve superbly, taking the first set tiebreak and then having chances to go a double break up in the second before losing 7-6, 3-6, 4-6. 'For one-and-a-half sets today, I could not get my timing. Jimmy was running around better than I was, even though he could almost be my father,' said the German. Connors took out his frustration a fortnight later against Mikael Pernfors in a match for the ages at Wimbledon, coming back from 1-6, 1-6, 1-4 to win in five. Becker showed more vulnerabilities on serve, losing to Australian Peter Doohan in the second round as his efforts to win a third consecutive SW19 title ended. Home favorite Tim Henman threatened to win Queen's in the late 1990s. His nemesis, Pete Sampras, stood in the way. Henman was an old-fashioned grass court expert who bore the pre-Murray pressure of trying to win Wimbledon with a British stiff upper lip. He outlasted 'Pistol Pete' in a first set tiebreak to raise the crowd volume but lost the second 6-4. Sampras was without a tournament victory in 1999 and Henman had three break points at 2-1 in the final set to expose that weakness. He missed them and the second seed prevailed to claim a second Queen's Championshi . This injected new life into Sampras who went on a 24-match winning streak, a run that included his sixth Wimbledon title in seven years. He beat Henman in the semifinals on Independence Day. Andy Murray won five Queen's Club Championships from 2009 to 2016, the year he finally became world No. 1. The Scot was denied the normal weekend trophy lift after Sunday's play was washed out. In the spirit of the 2001 Wimbledon final between Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter, a capacity Monday crowd came to fill the seats with 1,000 watching on a big screen outside too. The Frenchman had disposed of Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and took the first set 6-3, diving around like a 1980s Boris Becker. Murray fought back by winning the next on the tiebreak. The two finalists tussled in a tight third and Murray got his way when he finally broke the Frenchman's serve. He even had time for a tweener at the net at 5-3 up. "This has been one of the most fun weeks I've had on the tour. I've loved it,' said the British No. 1 afterwards. Murray showed his Slam credentials by making it to the Wimbledon semifinals the following month. Two years later, he lifted the Wimbledon crown. One big name missing from the roll call of Queen's Club winners is Novak Djokovic. The Serb hadn't played at the event for eight years when he accepted a wild card invite in 2018 to try and get some confidence going before Wimbledon. Number one seed Marin Cilic, who Roger Federer beat in the Australian Open final that year, was waiting. 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Lopez had fully deserved his spot in the final after beating Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych and Dimitrov in the previous rounds. Despite losing a tight first set 6-4, Lopez strode away with a second set tiebreak. Both men were playing tennis of such high quality that they were broken only once all week. The deciding set was destined to be another shootout and it was an epic as Lopez edged it 10-8. He became the oldest winner of the Queen's Club Championship in the professional era. Lopez broke that record himself when he secured a second title two years later at the age of 37. He also won the doubles alongside Murray which started barely half an hour after his singles win. The Queen's Club Championships is one of the best ATP 500 events out there and gets the juices flowing for the only major still on grass. Carlos Alcaraz won Queen's in 2023 and then followed it up with his maiden Wimbledon crown. Can the Spaniard repeat the double and make it six out of six majors?
