Less than 48 hours after celebrating an impressive tournament win in the Netherlands Alex de Minaur has had to rewrite his plans for Wimbledon after suffering an upset loss at Queen’s.
Newly promoted to world No.7 de Minaur looked on course for an easy win when he brushed aside Lorenzo Musetti 6-1 in the opening set in west London.
But the No.2 seed began to show signs of his exertions in winning in s’Hertogenbosch and his Italian opponent took advantage of a few errors to level the match in the second.
De Minaur, who was runner-up here last year, then faded fast, going 4-0 down in the third before getting on the scoreboard and avoiding a bagel. But he had too much to do to come back and lost 1-6 6-4 6-2.
“I lost a tennis match,” he said afterwards, “sometimes if happens. If it didn’t tennis would be a very easy sport when you win every match you play.
“It was a very quick turnaround from s’Hertogenbosch. I did my best to adapt and thought I came out really well. I had so many chances in the second set. It is one of the few matches where I would walk off and say, ‘I think I got unlucky’.
That could easy be a 6-1 6-3 type of match. If I end up getting the break … I had an easy ball and I hit the net cord and it sails long. A couple of break points here and there in the second set.
“I played a lot of tennis recently and it got the better of me in the end.”
De Minaur visibly dropped off in the final set with the energetic returning and scurrying that is such a feature of his game rarely apparent.
He won 44 per cent and 86 per cent of points when returning Musetti’s first and second serves respectively in the opening set, but 19 per cent and 50 per cent in the third. His own serve dropped off too.
He did, though, win more points in the match and felt he had played well, just missed opportunities. Having gone into this match with nine wins in his last ten matches he still feels in good fettle heading into Wimbledon, albeit with more practice time now than planned.
“I love this place,” he added of Queen’s. “I genuinely think if I had got over the hurdle of the first match I could have had a good week, but sometimes it happens.”
“I started to play more aggressively and that surprised him,” said Musetti, ranked 30 in the world. “I began to serve better and by the end the rallies he had been winning I was winning”.
There was another upset with Matteo Arnaldi defeating eighth seed Ugo Humert 3-6 6-1 7-6 (8-6).
In other first round matches Sebastian Korda beat Karen Khachanov 7-5 7-6 (7-5), Taylor Fritz beat Taro Daniel 6-3 6-3, and Alejandro Tabilo wrapped up his match against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, suspended overnight, 7-6 (8-6), 3-6 6-1.
Source Agencies
