Chris O'Connell has ended up cutting a baffled figure at Roland Garros, pondering how his potentially career-changing clay-court European season could have culminated in another sluggish first-round exit in the French Open.
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For the third year running, O'Connell, who believes not without good reason that clay is a strong surface for his attritional game, went out in the first round in Paris on Monday. But this one really seemed to hurt - and puzzle - him as he missed out on the chance of a second-round date with world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz.
Beaten 6-0 6-2 6-4 by his Japanese pal Taro Daniel, a player ranked 35 places below him, O'Connell just couldn't understand how, after such a big season on clay in which he'd reached the Munich semi-final, he'd again produced such a poor, slow-starting effort on the biggest stage.
For even though he had a problem with an oblique strain in his left side which affected his serving, the Sydneysider reckoned there were no excuses for what he felt was a weirdly familiar lapse that always seemed to occur when he got to Paris.
"I've had a really good season, having good wins, playing well on the clay," shrugged O'Connell, .
"But something happens when I come here. I just can't find that form that I've had over the past few months.
"(The body was) a little bit off but that wasn't really the issue today. It affected me a little bit on serve," he said.
"I don't know, it seems to be a consistent pattern here at the French over the last three years now where I'm getting off to terrible starts and not feeling very comfortable out there.
"The same sort of thing happened last year and the year before that and it happened again today."
In 2021, O'Connell succumbed to Aljaz Bedene in four sets after losing the first two, while the year before he again had to play catch-up in vain after gifting the first two sets to Tommy Paul, going on to lose 10-8 in an epic five-setter.
"You want to have your best results in the slams but it is just not happening for me here," said O'Connell.
"I think it's one of my best surfaces but, for whatever reason, here I just play really bad tennis."
He wonders if it may have had something to do with his failure to adapt to sea-level play after playing at altitude in recent tournaments.
Whatever, he's determined to stay positive after his breakthrough campaign on the clay which has transported him to a career-high 77.
"I've had a really good clay-court season and plan to continue playing on clay after Wimbledon," said O'Connell, who is based in Split, Croatia.
"I'm just going to get off the clay as soon as possible. Forget about it. Concentrate on the grass and then get on get back on the clay after that."
Australian Associated Press
