ROLAND GARROS

May 29, 2025

Alex De Minaur

Press Conference

A. BUBLIK/A. de Minaur

2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Maybe walk us through the match. What do you think was missing today?

ALEX de MINAUR: Obviously not a good day at the office. Yeah, one of those matches that kind of just slipped away without a whole lot of meaning. Yeah, just not a good day.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Physically, all that, no illness, no injury? Was there anything?

ALEX de MINAUR: No. Look, I'm just tired. I'm tired mentally. I'm a little bit burnt out, if anything. A lot of tennis being played. In a way, the good thing is that what's happened today is something like a miracle, right, in the sense that I'm not known for these types of performances or losing a match like this from two sets to love up.

I'm probably known for the opposite, which is just being consistent and not losing really matches that I shouldn't be losing.

Saying all this, obviously have to have a hard chat with the team and analyze everything that's been happening, kind of find a reason of why this happened today.

Q. When you say about tired and feeling a bit burned out, was there a period last year when you had a similar sort of feeling, that you had a bit of a dip in form and things were not going that well for you, you were getting frustrated?

ALEX de MINAUR: Look, if there's probably anything, last year I had to deal with the injury, right, after Wimbledon. I went on a good run here. I went onto the grass, went on another good run there, then had the injury.

After that it was probably something completely different I had to deal with. It was frustrating at times trying to get back to 100% health.

I wouldn't say, yeah, especially this early in the season that I felt like this.

Q. Do you feel that was a game that you lost or Bublik won really?

ALEX de MINAUR: I think I lost that one. I mean, yeah, probably looking back at my Grand Slam career, I can't think of another match where, yeah, I felt this way and I ended up losing a match that I probably by all means shouldn't have.

Look, not to give credit away from Bublik, he's extremely dangerous, but saying that, I was also two sets to love up. This is a match that, yeah, I win 99.9% of the times. Today was just the odd occasion that it slipped away.

Q. Do you put that down basically to your fatigue?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, I put that down to myself. I feel like if I can come up and put in the level that I know I can, I don't lose that match.

Q. There's no easy solution to this. The fatigue is across. We saw it with Casper yesterday. Players talking about having to play through injury because they've got to be at mandatory events. All the rules in place. No one seems to have a total solution. It's long and demanding, takes a toll as much mentally as physically. Have you got any thought as to what...

ALEX de MINAUR: I mean, no one's got a solution. But the solution is simple: you shorten the schedule, right? What's not normal is that for the last three, four years I've had two days off after Davis Cup, and I've gone straight into pre-season, straight into the new season again.

Yeah, sure, I mean, I could have maybe taken a week or a week and a half. Then That means my pre-season is two weeks long and I'm already starting in Australia, which is my home ground where I want to be doing well.

Once you start, you don't finish until November 24th, right? So it's just never ending. That's the sheer fact of it. The way it's structured, as Casper put it out there, I had to deal with that. I'm still dealing with that right now, right? My ranking right now consists of two zeros because I was injured and I couldn't play Cincinnati, Montreal - well, three - and Shanghai, which is ridiculous if you ask me, right? That's just the rules of the tour and where we are right now.

The solution is you shorten it, because what's going to happen is players' careers are going to get shorter and shorter because they're just going to burn out mentally. There's just too much tennis.

Look, there's no excuse, again, for today, myself, what happened today. I need to look at myself in the mirror and find out the reasonings, because ultimately this isn't going to change. It doesn't look like it's going to change. I have to adapt and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Q. During the match, we know you're going to fight to every point right to the bitter end, but did you at all feel this is not going to go right, it's slipping away? As disappointed as you are now, what will you do? Will you just be P'd off for the next couple of days and get on with things after this?

ALEX de MINAUR: I think the biggest tell sign when I'm not feeling good or, like, I'm tired is me getting edgy on the court. Normally I win this match, as I said, 9 times out of 10 based on my attitude. I don't let anything that he throws my way affect me.

Today I was getting frustrated with myself, which ended up lowering my level. Then I got into an even bigger hole. I forgot how to serve there. It all became a little bit too much to the point where it was one of the few times in my career where I felt like, yeah, I don't see the solution today. I don't think today is going to be that day where I turn things around just because I couldn't mentally get myself up for it.

Yeah, and as for now, I'll have a chat with the team and find a way to regroup. I mean, the grass season coming up, so... That is always an easier swing for me. I'm hoping that I'm definitely up for that.