LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - The perils of zigzagging across the world for almost a decade without a Grand Slam title to show for his sweat-soaked efforts caught up with tortured soul Alex de Minaur on Monday.
After his latest attempt to win one of the four majors ended with a demoralising 7-5 7-6(4) 6-3 fourth-round defeat to Italian Flavio Cobolli at Wimbledon, the Australian fifth seed cut a forlorn figure.
"Just not what I expected of myself. 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," said an utterly dejected De Minaur.
"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."
'JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH MENTALLY'
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 27-year-old.
De Minaur had beaten Cobolli in both of their previous meetings but on Monday, it was like De Minaur's tennis 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."
There is no doubting sport can be brutal. In tennis, only one man in a field of 128 can emerge triumphant at a Grand Slam tournament.
TOUGH SPORT TO PLAY WITH NO HOPE
When the shattered dreams keep piling up tournament after tournament, week after week, year after year, it can leave those playing individual sports in a dark place, especially when there is no team mate to share the pain with.
"Sadly, it just feels like they (the losses) keep on coming. Yeah, it's not easy to take," said De Minaur.
"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. So 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, tough sport to play with no hope."
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, Editing by Alison Williams)
