Queen's KO leaves de Minaur undercooked for Wimbledon

Perth Now

3 hours ago

Alex de Minaur's quickfire exit from Queen's has left Australia's big Wimbledon hope in danger of heading into the grasscourt grand slam severely undercooked.
The Aussie No.1 took a break after suffering a first week exit on the clay of Roland Garros, admitting the unrelenting schedule of the tennis calendar had left him mentally spent and physically drained.
He skipped the Rosmalen grasscourt warm-up in the Netherlands, which he won last year, to live the life of a "normal human being ... going for coffees, to dinners, visiting parks and nature, playing golf ... instead of obsessing about tennis 24/7."
However, the time out does not seem to have helped, not yet at least. De Minaur lacked sharpness in his first round match at the London ATP 500 event and Jiri Lehecka, a rising Czech with a big serve, took full advantage.
The world No.30's average serve, at 211kph, was the same as de Minaur's fastest and he never looked in danger of dropping it as he won 6-4 6-2.
De Minaur made uncharacteristic errors on his forehand and his first serve percentage was below 60 per cent.
Lehecka had not played on grass for nearly two years, having missed the entirety of the 2024 grasscourt season with a back injury, but looked far more comfortable than de Minaur , a Queen's finalist in 2023 and Wimbledon quarterf-inalist last year, who won three of the last 15 points.
"I understand (the need), the schedule is brutal, but it's not the best time to take a break, between two slams," said British former Australian Open finalist John Lloyd on BBC.
"You can see he's flat. He needs matches, but he won't get them if he plays like that."
De MInaur had not planned to play in either of the final warm-ups next week - Eastbourne on England's south coast and Mallorca, Spain - but may now rethink.
Asked how he was feeling he said, "Good question. I'm not too sure. Obviously wasn't the kind of result I was hoping for coming here to Queen's.
"So back to the drawing board, and we're going to have to make some decisions."
De Minaur had told AAP at the weekend, "so there might be a little bit of a difference or a conversation to be had if Queen's doesn't go well."
But he added: "I've got to start having a more of a mentality of a big player and start backing myself to not have to play so many tournaments, back myself to do well in in those big tournaments."