Alex De Minaur says his round-of-16 exit from Wimbledon "breaks me inside" as his search for a first grand slam title goes on.

De Minaur was high on confidence heading into the fourth round at Wimbledon, having dropped just one set in his opening three matches.

However, he was brushed aside in straight sets by Flavio Cobolli on Monday, with the Italian triumphing 7-5 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to reach the final eight.

De Minaur has previously reached seven grand slam quarter-finals, but has never advanced beyond that stage, while his haul of 11 ATP titles does not include a Masters success.

And the Australian cut a forlorn figure after being beaten by Cobolli.

"Just not what I expected of myself. One of us went out to win the match, and the other went out not to lose the match. It's pretty self-explanatory who was who," De Minaur said.

"It breaks me inside. That's the reality of it. Many, many hours gets put into my craft, and countless years to kind of have moments like these. To not step up to the plate, it's truly gut-wrenching. It's very tough.

"Sadly, it just feels like they [the losses] keep on coming. Yeah, it's not easy to take.

"To fall short constantly, you start doubting yourself. You start doubting whether you're going to be able to break through and kind of take it to the next step."

De Minaur had won both of his previous meetings with Cobolli prior to their last-16 clash, and held a break advantage in both the second and third sets, but the Italian continued to wear him down.

"I've got lots of ways in which I can hurt him. But if I don't play to my capabilities and, more than that, I hinder myself, then it's not ideal," he said.

"Just not good enough mentally. That's how you explain it.

"I won't play a tournament for a while. But ... the goals, the beliefs, the dreams that you have, they kind of start fading away.

"I'm not going to say, I've had enough, I'm hanging up the racquets. It's fresh now. It hurts like hell now.

"But I'm a competitor through and through. So I'll get back up, and I'll give myself another chance. I just want it to kind of happen to keep giving me that hope. If not, this is a tough, tough sport to play with no hope."