{"id":122421,"date":"2021-09-01T05:14:13","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T05:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=122421"},"modified":"2021-09-01T08:00:05","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T08:00:05","slug":"downcast-de-minaur-crashes-out-in-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=122421","title":{"rendered":"Downcast de Minaur crashes out in first round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia's Alex de Minaur<\/a> says his recent bout with COVID-19 wasn't to blame for his first round exit at the US Open.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old was beaten by American Taylor Fritz, 7-6, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, continuing a disappointing US hardcourt season for de Minaur.<\/p>\n

Currently ranked 17 in the world, the Australian is likely to drop out of the top 20 after the US Open.<\/p>\n

He was a late withdrawal from the Australian team for the Tokyo Olympics, after testing positive to COVID-19.<\/a><\/p>\n

"It's been tough, post-COVID," de Minaur said.<\/p>\n

"I felt way better today, today wasn't a matter of COVID or anything like that, it was a high-level match and Taylor played better in the big moments and I didn't take my opportunities.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

"He deserved to win, he was the better guy out there."<\/p>\n

Fritz had not previously taken a set off de Minaur in their three tour-level meetings, but the Australian was adamant that counted for nothing at the US Open.<\/p>\n

"It's obviously a different stage, we're playing at his home slam with a big court, and he rose to the occasion," he explained.<\/p>\n

"I feel like I had plenty of opportunities, a bit of same-old, same-old.<\/p>\n

"If I take my opportunities we're looking at a very different match."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenRothenberg\/status\/1432917919353159681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

The Australian has now lost five of his last six matches, since winning his fifth career title at Eastbourne<\/a> before Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

His only victory in that timeframe came over Filip Krajinovic in Cincinnati, where de Minaur came back after dropping the first set 6-0 to win in three.<\/p>\n

Asked by Wide World of Sports to assess where it had gone wrong, de Minaur was downcast.<\/p>\n

"Not in the slightest what I wanted my US summer to be, due to whatever factors," he said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/walshcee\/status\/1432917536375402498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"I still haven't felt like myself, haven't played the way I want to play, it's very disappointing.<\/p>\n

"There's nothing I can do about it now, but try to move on."<\/p>\n

A quarter-finalist in New York last year, the Australian hasn't received any favours from the draw at either Wimbledon or the US Open, where, as a seed, he's faced relatively tough first round matches.<\/p>\n

He played Sebastian Korda at Wimbledon, seen by many as a future star, while Fritz is currently ranked 42, having been as high as 24 in the world last year.<\/p>\n

"At the end of the day, both those matches I've had chances to take it home," de Minaur explained.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/josemorgado\/status\/1432891974596579328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"I just haven't played well in the big moments, maybe against another opponent you can get away with that.<\/p>\n

"But against quality guys like Taylor and Seb, they're going to make you pay for it.<\/p>\n

"That's what happened today."<\/p>\n

De Minaur said he's not sure what long-term impact his brush with COVID-19 will have, or how soon he can find his best tennis.<\/p>\n

"It's a tough one to answer, there's two factors that jump into the equation. It's a physical factor, and a confidence factor," he said.<\/p>\n

"It hasn't really helped out these last couple of weeks, so trying to get back to my old self, hopefully it comes sooner rather than later."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia's Alex de Minaur says his recent bout with COVID-19 wasn't to blame for his first round exit at the US Open. The 22-year-old was […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122421"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122423,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122421\/revisions\/122423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}