MELBOURNE, Australia - Alex De Minaur was about as forlorn as he's ever been, in his post-match media conference after his "devastating" five-set loss to Andrey Rublev in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
From a commanding position of two sets to one up on Rod Laver Arena on Sunday night, the recently-crowned newest member of the ATP's top 10 had the crowd rocking as he hunted a last eight appearance at his home Slam.
But Rublev, seeded fifth in Melbourne, was able to find another gear, playing lights-out tennis in the fourth and fifth sets to show the Australian there remains a gap between perennial fourth-round players, and those who can go one, two, or three steps further and win a Grand Slam.
"Maybe in the past I would have been somewhat content with a fourth round, but I thought I had more in me. It is a bit disappointing," De Minaur said following the loss.
It's the 24-year-old's third successive stumble at the fourth round in Melbourne. Disappointing, from De Minaur's perspective, as he was the 32nd seed here in 2022, the 22nd seed here in 2023, and the 10th seed this year.
His ranking, and overall play, had been improving, but he's been unable to break through into the last eight. Coming into the Australian Open, De Minaur was in hot form. At the United Cup, he beat then-world No. 10 Taylor Fritz, world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, and world No. 6 Alexander Zverev in consecutive outings.
This was on the back of leading Australia to a Davis Cup final late last year, at which he fell to Jannik Sinner, now world No. 4.
"In due time I'll take the three top-10 wins at United Cup, I'll take it as confidence. Even this match, I'm playing some great tennis," he said.
Stepping back a touch, a fourth-round appearance from a 10th ranked player is about par. Seedings would say it's the top eight players who -- all things equal -- make the quarterfinals, though, as always with tennis and Grand Slams in particular, nothing is guaranteed.
Even still, you can tell from the Australian's demeanour that he believes he belongs at the top level, competing deep into the second week at Grand Slams. He described himself as "night and day a different player" compared to previous years in Melbourne.
From a plucky kid who chased down balls who the old adage of 'Aussie grit', De Minaur is these days lauded as one of the fastest players on tour, with a tendency to run down balls other players would simply give up on. You only had to watch the frustration on Rublev's face as De Minaur closed out two enthralling tiebreakers in the second and third sets of their clash to lead through three.
"Maybe a couple years ago or even last year I would be sitting here, maybe even happy with the result, 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."
His serve, too, has improved immensely, yet it let him down in Melbourne. His first serve percentage was hovering around the 50% mark -- and in the deciding fifth dropped to 47% -- and he double faulted at crucial times which let the Russian into the match when he probably shouldn't have been.
"Realistically, again, I think what let me down was my serve, the inability to get through my service games," De Minaur said.
"I had more break points than he did, had more chances than he did, but I just wasn't able to execute those chances and he was. I think there lies the difference in this match.
"My serve was something that has been really good to me this whole Australian summer, and today kind of disappeared. It's a little bit disappointing."
With his early exit and Fritz's run to at least the quarters, the Aussie will slip slightly to 11th in the rankings as the American reclaims his position. But De Minaur's mentality firmly remains entrenched within the top 10, as he hunts deep runs at Slams.
At the end of the day, he's still just 24 years of age. It feels like he's been around for a decade, but De Minaur definitely has more of his career ahead, rather than in the rearview mirror behind him.
"Perspective changes with results, right? All of a sudden expectation and what you believe you should be achieving also changes," De Minaur said.
