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.”