'Oh my god': Alex de Minaur stuns tennis world with shock meltdown
A few moments of madness may have cost Alex de Minaur a trip to the second round of the Japan Open after the Australian missed a regulation smash and then destroyed his racquet in the deciding set of his match with Lloyd Harris.
In scenes more reminiscent of a Nick Kyrgios match, de Minaur gifted the South African two points with his fluffed shot, immediately compounding the error by trashing his racquet and being docked a point penalty.
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The world No.24 had already received a code violation and warning, thus incurring a point loss in the second instance.
Just watched 3rd set of De Minaur v Harris. What a difficult 1st match for DeM in Tokyo, after winning Zhuhai just last week. He was irritated all thru the match, even smashed a racket, got a point penalty in the 3rd set TB, which he lost (10-8). Harris though-a name to remember. pic.twitter.com/z341sn2khx
— Del (@Stroppa_Del) October 2, 2019
It changed the complexion of the match, de Minaur going from up a mini-break in the final tiebreaker to being down one in the blink of an eye.
While he quickly calmed down and even managed to hold two match points on his opponent's serve, the damage was largely done as Harris eventually closed out the match 6-3 6-7 (8-6) 7-6 (10-8).
It was an unfortunate ending for the Australian No.1, who was coming off the back of his third ATP title win in Wuhan.
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The towering South African largely had his measure and wasn't broken throughout the match.
But de Minaur refused to go away, hanging tough in the second set tiebreak when Harris had two serves to take the match before scrapping his way to a deciding set tiebreak.
Given he’s usually quite mild-mannered, the meltdown stunned the tennis world.
Unreal miss from De Minaur, who destroys his racket.
3-3 in the 3rd set tiebreak.— José Morgado (@josemorgado) October 2, 2019
omg it was a 2nd warning, point penalty and minibreak for Harris. Minibreak back Demon now, 4-4.
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) October 2, 2019
Wow. At *3-3 in the final set tiebreak, De Minaur receives his second code violation and point penalty for racquet abuse.
— Ace Tennis Previews (@Ace_Previews) October 2, 2019
Hanging around Kyrgios too much?
— PXB (@PaulPaulrex) October 2, 2019
Imagine the media blowup if Nick did this
— Matt (@stkildamatt) October 2, 2019
De Minaur misses Millman showdown
The loss means he'll miss out on a second round match with countryman John Millman who fought back from a set down against Adrian Mannarino.
Millman played the big points better to prevail 4-6 6-3 6-4 in two hours and eight minutes.
Meanwhile Novak Djokovic reached the quarterfinals by beating Japanese wildcard entry Go Soeda 6-3 7-5.
Djokovic, who is attempting to win a title on his tournament debut for the 10th time, hit 10 aces and saved three of four break points.
Djokovic retired with a left-shoulder injury during his fourth-round match against Stan Wawrinka at the US Open but showed no lingering effects in Tokyo.
Djokovic, who is 42-8 this season with three titles in four finals, will next face either Yoshihito Nishioka and Lucas Pouille.
Also, Yasutaka Uchiyama beat Radu Albot 6-7 (7-2) 6-3 6-4, and third-seeded David Goffin rallied to beat Pablo Carreno 1-6 7-6 (10-8) 6-0.