The surprises at Roland Garros keep coming, and this time, Alex de Minaur joins a growing list of top players—including Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas—who have made unexpected early exits.
The Australian, ranked ninth in the world, fell to World No. 62 Alexander Bublik in a match that saw him surrender a two-set lead to lose 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. After the match, de Minaur didn’t shy away from expressing his frustration, citing mental and physical fatigue as the key reasons behind his performance.
“Look, I’m just tired. I’m tired mentally. I’m a little bit burnt out, if anything. A lot of tennis being played,” he said during the post-match press conference. “I think I lost that one. Looking back at my Grand Slam career, I can’t think of another match where I felt this way and I ended up losing a match that I probably by all means shouldn’t have”.
De Minaur specifically called out the ATP’s demanding schedule, which he believes is taking a toll on players’ mental and physical health. “It’s just never-ending,” he said of the relentless calendar.
“No one’s got a solution. But the solution is simple: you shorten the schedule, right? Because what’s going to happen is players’ careers are going to get shorter and shorter because they’re just going to burn out mentally,” he added. “There’s just too much tennis”.
Casper Ruud echoes similar concerns
The ATP schedule has been a hot topic of late, with fellow star Casper Ruud also voicing his frustrations after his loss to Nuno Borges. The Norwegian criticized the packed calendar and mandatory tournament requirements, describing the system as “like a rat race.”
“Well, it’s kind of like a rat race when it comes to the rankings as well. You feel you’re obligated to play with certain rules that the ATP have set up with the mandatory events,” Ruud said. “You feel like you lose a lot if you don’t show up and play, both economically, point-wise, ranking-wise, and opportunity-wise”.
Ruud also highlighted the controversial year-end bonus system, which reduces players’ bonuses by 25 percent if they skip mandatory events, even due to injury.
“It’s a questionable system because on one hand, you don’t want to show up injured, and you maybe give the spot to someone else,” he explained. “But if you don’t play a mandatory event, they cut 25 percent of your year-end bonus. You’re kind of forcing players to show up injured or sick, or whatever, when that is not what I think is very fair”.