Alex de Minaur suffers another 'truly gut-wrenching' Wimbledon loss

It is becoming a repetitive, vicious cycle: Alex de Minaur starts a grand-slam tournament, results and performances develop, then just as it seems he is finally going to make the breakthrough, he walks on court and fades away.

Then he berates himself publicly, questions whether he has what it takes.

And the next time he is on the verge of achieving something, he remembers the last collapse, and the previous one, and the one before, and under the burden of expectation and memory, he blows up again.

So much of sport is played in the mind, and after his fourth-round Wimbledon exit to Flavio Cobolli, de Minaur's mind is again in a dark place.

"It's a tough one. Overall, just not what I expected of myself," the 27-year-old said after the 7-5, 7-6(7/4), 6-3 loss.

"I think 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.

"It breaks me inside. That's the reality of it. Many, many hours get put into my craft, and countless years to have moments like these. To not step up to the plate, it's truly gut-wrenching.

"How do you explain it? Just not good enough mentally. That's how you explain it.

"The issue is playing this match like I've got the weight of the world on my shoulders. I need to deal with it better, because if not, I'm just not going to be able to achieve the goals and dreams I've got.

"Sadly, it just feels like [these results] keep on coming. This is just another one to add to the tally."

De Minaur broke Cobolli four times in the match and led 5-2 in the second set, only to lose 12 of the next 13 points as the Italian ninth seed stormed back to win it in a tiebreak.

In the decider, de Minaur was up a break and 2-0, before the French Open finalist won six of the next seven games to close out the match.

The missed opportunities, the Sydneysider added, accumulate.

"The goals, the beliefs, the dreams that you have, they start fading away or they feel a little bit further away than when they once were," he said.

"You go through moments in your career, times where you feel that there's opportunities to be taken, to take the next step, to make it to the next level. And to fall short constantly, you start doubting whether you're going to be able to take it to the next step.

"It's a battle that I deal with every day."

The next match would have been against Briton Arthur Fery, who took down fellow wild card Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(10/7).

In the other men's matches, Taylor Fritz reached the quarters with a 7-6(7/1), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Alexander Bublik, with Roland Garros champion Alexander Zverev facing Jiří Lehečka 13th seed.

De Minaur, who has reached the last eight of every major but is yet to go further, said he truly believes it is a matter of overcoming the mental hurdles, rather than a matter of talent.

"I think the tennis is there to win these types of matches, if I can just play tennis and not worry about anything else," he said.

"I wasn't able to do that, and that's why I'm in this position right now. I either improve or we'll see the same results again and again.

The world number six said he would keep fighting, desperately clinging to the hope that things would change.

"I'm a competitor through and through. So I'll get back up, and I'll give myself another chance," he said.

"I just want it to happen to keep giving me that hope. If not, this is a tough, tough sport to play with no hope."

For now, he has the perfect distraction, his imminent marriage to British player Katie Boulter.

"I've got some pretty big things happening soon, stuff that I'm very excited for," he said.

"My best way forward is to channel my focus into that, into something positive, and that should help put this in the past and get on with what's next."

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