Alex de Minaur has rarely looked or sounded quite so dispirited after his soaring Wimbledon hopes were brought crashing down by a rejuvenated Matteo Berrettini.
Australia’s No.1 was left harbouring a familiar sinking feeling as his No.15-seeding provided absolutely no protection at all in the second round against the one unseeded dangerman all the big guns were hoping to sidestep.
“This one will obviously sit with me for a while. Yeah, I’m not happy at all. It’s a pretty bad situation to be in,” sighed de Minaur, who was a picture of misery after his 6-3 6-3 6-4 caning in just over two one-sided hours.
“I’ll try not to dwell on it, but it won’t be easy.
“I would have liked to have gone a bit further here. I thought this was a great opportunity for me,” added de Minaur, who was just coming off his best grass-court achievement, reaching the final at the Queen’s Club Championship where he lost to world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz.
“I was playing great on this surface. I just came up against a tough opponent on the day.”
The big disappointment for the slight Sydneysider was that, just when he felt he was making great strides this European summer, he once again got overpowered by a big hitter, just as Berrettini had dismantled him in the Queen’s Club semi-final two years ago.
And just like 2021, when he also had a top-16 seeding, it felt like wretched luck that he drew such a dangerous non-seed so early in the competition.
In 2021, it was American Sebastian Korda who knocked him out; this time, Berrettini, who, after recent injury troubles, again resembled the figure who took a set off Novak Djokovic in the final two years ago.
“It’s actually amazing. The better I’m seeded at a slam, the tougher draw I get,” said de Minaur.
“To play Berrettini in the second round, it’s not exactly being lucky really when you see some of the other second-round match-ups. But, hey, maybe the secret for me is to not be a higher seed, and maybe I’ll get an easier draw, I don’t know.”
Berrettini, who had even considered pulling out of the tournament last week with his abdominal trouble, looked to be vulnerable on paper, but he was back to his best, thundering down 13 aces, cracking 38 winners and giving de Minaur no hope as he won 88 per cent of the points on first serve.
“I knew that going in, he hasn’t been there for a while, but obviously this week he’s kind of shown up,” shrugged de Minaur, pondering how he was supposed to deal with such a formidable serve.
“It’s pretty high up there,” he said, comparing Berrettini’s delivery to other big servers. “Consistently over 130mph, hitting spots. Can hit every serve.
“It’s tough to play an opponent like that when he’s feeling it from the get-go, and then on return he can have a swing. If he makes it, then good; if not, well, he’s not really under pressure on his serve.”
Sad at such a dispiriting end to his singles campaign, de Minaur was later attempting to cheer himself up with a first mixed doubles outing alongside his British girlfriend, Katie Boulter.