Alex de Minaur's US Open Exit: A Day of Frustration
Alex de Minaur doesn’t do excuses. Not after nights like this.
Under the lights in New York, against an opponent he had beaten four times from four, Australia’s No.1 never really arrived. Botic van de Zandschulp did, and walked away with a straight-sets win: 6-4, 7-5, 6-2, and with it Alex de Minaur’s US Open campaign.
The scoreline told one story. The body language told another. De Minaur looked flat, tight, and strangely disconnected from the ball. For a player who usually lives on rhythm and relentlessness, it was like watching a musician play half a beat out of time.
“My level today wasn’t good enough. It’s pretty straightforward,” he said, as blunt as the performance had been messy.
A day late, a step short
De Minaur had been forced to back up just a day after his delayed first-round win over Italian qualifier Andrea Guerrieri. He’s usually one of the fittest players on tour, a man who prides himself on outlasting opponents. This time, the legs weren’t the problem.
The timing was.
Rust crept into his game early and never really left. His forehand, normally a rock-solid foundation, betrayed him. Routine winners flew wide. Others sailed metres beyond the baseline. The more he tried to hit his way out of trouble, the deeper he sank.
“I gave myself every chance by being competitive, having a good mindset, a good attitude, but it was just one of those days where just the feeling of the ball on the strings wasn’t there,” he said, according to AAP.
He kept swinging. The errors kept coming.
“I was making a lot of errors, which is not really my normal game style. I can't really explain the reasoning of it, but just it felt like the more I tried, the more intensity, the more fired up I was getting, I just kept on making unforced errors.
“When those sort of things happen and the odd chance that you have, he comes out with some good tennis - it's just a recipe for a tough day at the office.”
The pressure finally told in the key moments. Van de Zandschulp didn’t need to be spectacular; he just needed to be solid and ready when de Minaur blinked. He was.
Calm words, growing questions
For all the frustration of another early exit, there was no hint of panic in de Minaur’s assessment.
“Obviously would have loved to do better, as any competitor would, but it’s what happens in this sort of sport. Everyone loses matches,” he said.
“Everyone is losing matches that maybe they would love to have back.
“… It’s one I would love to have back, but we move forward and it’s not the end of the world.”
On paper, 2024 still carries weight: a seventh Grand Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open, then a third-round exit at Roland-Garros and a fourth-round run at Wimbledon. Respectable results, but not the leap he has been chasing. Layered on top are a string of early ATP Tour exits, and the pattern has become hard to ignore.
So have the whispers.
Some voices around the sport have started to wonder whether it is time for a change in his long-standing coaching setup. De Minaur and Adolfo Gutierrez have been together for nearly two decades, ever since the Sydneysider moved to Spain at nine years old. In a sport where player-coach relationships can be brutally short, theirs is an outlier.
On Nine’s coverage, Jelena Dokic acknowledged the debate without dismissing the partnership.
"Only Alex knows what he needs … a lot of players will change coaches quickly, especially if they feel like the results are not there," she said.
“That’s up to him to make those decisions and what he wants to do. Let’s not forget Adolfo has gotten him to such a high point in his career – to the top five in the world.”
That last line matters. Gutierrez isn’t just a familiar face in the box; he is the architect behind de Minaur’s rise into the sport’s elite. Tearing that up would be seismic.
The burden of a perfectionist
If the technical side is under the microscope, so too is the emotional weight de Minaur carries.
Dokic pointed to his mindset as a possible fault line. After Wimbledon, he looked on the verge of tears as he spoke about his struggles. The pattern, she suggested, has become unhealthy.
"We know his mindset, we know what a perfectionist he is. He wants to get to the top and maybe not doing that in the last two years has affected him," she said.
"For him, wins have become almost a relief and not so much satisfaction and joy, and that's hard. Losses have almost been end-of-the-world type things. He's been really, really hard on himself. I think he has to give himself a bit more of a pat on the back and a bit more credit.
"Whatever he decides to do with coaching, the way that he goes about things and the mindset around it is going to have to change. It's very hard to keep this up, to constantly expect from yourself to win. That's been an issue for him.
"When you've got the constant pressure of feeling like you want to win and get to the top, and maybe that's not quite happening the way you want to, you can start to lose motivation, you can get really flat.
“I think that that’s what’s happened – he’s lost a little bit of that mojo to be out there.”
The suggestion wasn’t just about who sits in his box. It was about how often he plays and how he handles the grind. Dokic floated the idea that he might need to rethink his schedule, ease his load, and protect his energy.
For a player whose brand is built on intensity, that kind of recalibration would be significant.
A lone Australian left standing
While de Minaur packed his bags, one Australian quietly kept the flag flying.
Earlier in the day, Dane Sweeny produced the upset of his life, knocking out Italian No.13 seed Lorenzo Musetti to become the last Aussie standing in either singles draw. On a day when the country’s standard-bearer slipped out the side door, it was Sweeny who grabbed the spotlight.
De Minaur will leave New York with more questions than answers: about his forehand, his mindset, his schedule, and perhaps, eventually, his coaching setup. The ranking points will sting. The manner of the loss will sting more.
What he does next will tell the real story of where his career is heading.
