Alex de Minaur has not often appeared or sounded fairly so dispirited after his hovering Wimbledon hopes have been introduced crashing down by a rejuvenated Matteo Berrettini.
Australia’s No.1 was left harbouring a well-known sinking feeling as his No.15-seeding offered completely no safety in any respect within the second spherical towards the one unseeded dangerman all the large weapons have been hoping to sidestep.
“This one will obviously sit with me for a while. Yeah, I’m not happy at all. It’s a pretty bad situation to be in,” sighed de Minaur, who was an image of distress after his 6-3 6-3 6-4 caning in simply over two one-sided hours.
“I’ll try not to dwell on it, but it won’t be easy.
“I might have appreciated to have gone a bit additional right here. I assumed this was an incredible alternative for me,” added de Minaur, who was just coming off his best grass-court achievement, reaching the final at the Queen’s Club Championship where he lost to world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz.
“I used to be taking part in nice on this floor. I simply got here up towards a troublesome opponent on the day.”
The big disappointment for the slight Sydneysider was that, just when he felt he was making great strides this European summer, he once again got overpowered by a big hitter, just as Berrettini had dismantled him in the Queen’s Club semi-final two years ago.
And just like 2021, when he also had a top-16 seeding, it felt like wretched luck that he drew such a dangerous non-seed so early in the competition.
In 2021, it was American Sebastian Korda who knocked him out; this time, Berrettini, who, after recent injury troubles, again resembled the figure who took a set off Novak Djokovic in the final two years ago.
“It’s really superb. The higher I’m seeded at a slam, the more durable draw I get,” stated de Minaur.
“To play Berrettini within the second spherical, it isn’t precisely being fortunate actually if you see a few of the different second-round match-ups. But, hey, perhaps the key for me is to not be the next seed, and perhaps I’ll get a neater draw, I do not know.”
Berrettini, who had even considered pulling out of the tournament last week with his abdominal trouble, looked to be vulnerable on paper, but he was back to his best, thundering down 13 aces, cracking 38 winners and giving de Minaur no hope as he won 88 per cent of the points on first serve.
“I knew that getting into, he hasn’t been there for some time, however clearly this week he is sort of proven up,” shrugged de Minaur, pondering how he was supposed to deal with such a formidable serve.
“It’s fairly excessive up there,” he said, comparing Berrettini’s delivery to other big servers. “Consistently over 130mph, hitting spots. Can hit each serve.
“It’s tough to play an opponent like that when he’s feeling it from the get-go, and then on return he can have a swing. If he makes it, then good; if not, well, he’s not really under pressure on his serve.”
Sad at such a dispiriting finish to his singles marketing campaign, de Minaur was later trying to cheer himself up with a primary blended doubles outing alongside his British girlfriend, Katie Boulter.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
