De Minaur ‘broken inside’ after ‘gut-wrenching’ Wimbledon exit

The perils of zig-zagging across the world for almost a decade without a grand slam title to show for his sweat-soaked efforts caught up with Australian star Alex de Minaur, who was bundled out of Wimbledon in straight sets.

After his latest attempt to win one of the four majors ended at the hands of Italy’s Flavio Coboli in a demoralising 7-5, 7-6(4), 6-3 fourth-round defeat.

Speaking post-match, de Minaur cut a dejected figure and admitted he was ‘broken inside’ after falling short on the big stage again.

“Just not what I expected of myself,” the 27-year-old said.

“One of us went out to win the match, and the other went out not to lose the match. It’s pretty self-explanatory who was who.

“It breaks me inside. That’s the reality of it. Many, many hours gets put into my craft, and countless years to kind of have moments like these.

“To not step up to the plate, it’s truly gut-wrenching. It’s very tough.”

Despite being ranked a career-high sixth in the world, de Minaur’s haul of 11 ATP titles does not even include a Masters 1000 trophy.

In 36 appearances at the majors, he has consistently made the last eight at the four majors since 2024 - but that is as good as it has got for the Aussie.

De Minaur had beaten Cobolli in both of their previous meetings but on Tuesday morning (AEST), it was like his brain had suffered a short circuit.

“I’ve got lots of ways in which I can hurt him - but if I don’t play to my capabilities and more than that, I hinder myself, then it’s not ideal,” he said.

“Just not good enough mentally. That’s how you explain it.”

When the shattered dreams keep piling up tournament after tournament, De Minaur admitted the grand slam exits were getting tougher to swallow.

“Sadly, it just feels like they (the losses) keep on coming. Yeah, it’s not easy to take,” he said.

“To fall short constantly, you start doubting yourself. You start doubting whether you’re going to be able to break through and kind of take it to the next step.”

De Minaur hopes taking a break will allow him to recalibrate, and get out of the deep dark hole that gobbled him up at Wimbledon.

“I won’t play a tournament for a while. But ... the goals, the beliefs, the dreams that you have, they kind of start fading away,” he said.

“I’m not going to say, I’ve had enough, I’m hanging up the racquets. It’s fresh now. It hurts like hell now ... but I’m a competitor through and through.

“I’ll get back up and I’ll give myself another chance. I just want it to kind of happen to keep giving me that hope. If not, this is a tough sport to play with no hope.”

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