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A shattered Alex de Minaur admits his serve let him down in his gripping five-set loss to Andrey Rublev, which saw him eliminated from the Australian Open in the fourth round.
- De Minaur lost to Rublev 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-0
- The Australian regretted not being able to take advantage of Rublev's fatigue late in the match
- It is the third consecutive year de Minaur has exited in the fourth round
De Minaur, the last Australian in the singles draws, appeared headed for the quarterfinals when he led Rublev two sets to one on Rod Laver Arena.
But Rublev, the tournament fifth seed, stormed back to complete a 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-0 victory after four hours and 14 minutes on court.
De Minaur acknowledged his opponent deserved the win, but he pinpointed his serve as contributing to his downfall.
The Australian 10th seed could only land 53 per cent of his first serves in for the entire match, giving up eight service breaks, including five in the final two sets.
"I just was not finding first serves," de Minaur told his post-match media conference.
"In those crucial moments, I was giving him too many second serves and he was able to just swing freely."
De Minaur could not put his finger on why he struggled with his first serves, as he considered this one of his strengths during his impressive United Cup campaign prior to the Australian Open.
"My serve was something that has been really good to me this whole Australian summer and today kind of disappeared," he said.
"It's a little bit disappointing."
De Minaur was also upset he failed to capitalise on Rublev's physical condition in the final set when the Russian was beset by fatigue.
He expected Rublev to tire, but the world number five "just let loose".
"The match was basically changed when he started to get a little bit more fatigued," de Minaur said.
"He started to realise that he probably had to go after it a little bit more and adopted a more aggressive game style.
"He executed that and I wasn't able to expose his movement."
De Minaur was bidding to become the first Australian to reach the men's quarterfinals at Melbourne Park since Nick Kyrgios in 2015.
It was his third consecutive fourth-round finish at the Australian Open, and the 24-year-old had reason to expect he could go further after his lead-up form.
He defeated three top-10 players at the United Cup, including world number one Novak Djokovic, and earned a career-high ranking of 10.
"Maybe a couple of years ago, or even last year, I would be sitting here saying, 'I probably shouldn't have won, he's higher ranked than I am, I took him to five sets, pretty decent effort'," de Minaur said.
"But it's completely changed because now I'm sitting here and I'm absolutely devastated because I saw it as a great opportunity and a match that I strongly believed I could have won.
"But it just slipped away."
While disappointed with the result, de Minaur could still find positives from his start to the 2024 season.
"In due time I'll take the three top-10 wins at United Cup, I'll take it as confidence," de Minaur said.
"I'm playing some great tennis. It's the start of the year. Importantly, if I can keep this level throughout the whole year, I'm quite confident that I'll be able to finish where I want to."
Rublev will meet Italian fourth seed Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals.
It is the third time Rublev has advanced to the last eight at the Australian Open and the 10th occasion at a major.