By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Wednesday, July 10, 2024
A hip injury forced a "devastated" Alex de Minaur to withdraw from Wimbledon today, sending Novak Djokovic into the semifinals on a walkover.
Photo credit: Rob Newell/CameraSport
Wimbledon—Enduring sleepless nights, Alex de Minaur woke to a nightmare scenario today.
The ninth-seeded de Minaur has withdrawn from Wimbledon due to a hip injury he sustained at the end of his 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over Arthur Fils in the fourth round.
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A devastated de Minaur said doctors told him he will likely be sidelined three to six weeks, which would probably rule him out of this month's Paris Olympic Games.
"I’m devastated, but I had to pull out due to a hip injury," de Minaur told the media in today's 12:10 p.m. presser. "A little tear of the fiber cartilage that is at the end [and] connects to the adductor.
"I felt a loud crack during the last three points of my match against Fils and got a scan yesterday. And it confirmed that this was the injury with high risk of making it worse if I were to step on court."
De Minaur's departure sends seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic into the Wimbledon semifinals on a walkover.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic awaits the winner of today's quarterfinal between 13th-seeded American Taylor Fritz and 25th-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the semifinals.
Djokovic is the fifth man in the Open Era to reach the semifinals at a Grand Slam aged 37 or older, while matching rival Roger Federer’s all-time record of 13 appearances in the Wimbledon singles semifinals.
Wishing you a swift recovery, @alexdeminaur 💚💜#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/kUcHwWZ35J
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2024
A solemn de Minaur said after a brief practice this morning, he had no choice but to pull the plug on his Wimbledon dreams.
"It’s devastating. No way to beat around the bush," de Minaur said. "I’ve gone from achieving, but I haven’t really been able to enjoy what I achieved this week.
"As soon as I felt that pop I knew something bad happened. It’s been two days of just worrying and waiting to see what the results showed. In the grand scheme of things it could have been worse so I’m trying to hold onto that.
"I’ve been struggling to sleep the last couple of days. I feel it walking I was just hoping I would wake up and feel it it a little bit less or at least go on court. But again it’s almost disrespectful for me to go on the court if I’m not 100 percent against someone like Novak. There’s no point in me going out there if I’m not trying to win."
De Minaur, who received a third-round walkover from Frenchman Lucas Pouille, said it's a painful injury that he feels "quite high up" on the adductor in conjunction with his abdominal.
"It’s completely unique new injury that I’ve got," de Minaur said. "It’s four years of research. That’s why they couldn’t give me an approximate on recovery time. It’s quite a unique injury.
"I’m hoping the pain goes down with a bit of rest and ultimately it’s kind of working against the clock to get back as soon as possible.
"It’s quite high up almost where the adductor and ab insertion there that’s where I feel it kind of happened when I slid out to a forehand created a lot of force. I heard that crack and knew it was never going to be something good."
Last January, a declarative de Minaur upset Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 scoring his first career win over a reigning world No. 1 before a raucous home crowd in Perth at the United Cup.
Afterward, de Minaur called it his best career win as it came a year after Djokovic destroyed the Aussie 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 at the 2022 Australian Open.
"I guess this one is the first because it's World No. 1, and honestly, like, as I said, last time we played I was lucky to get games, right, to the point where I felt almost embarrassed on the court," de Minaur said after surprising Djokovic in Perth. "I think it's been a nice little changeup from one year ago.
"I'm happy that I was able to play that sort of tennis, that level and especially have that mentality. It's not easy to walk back out on court after you've been kind of thrashed last time."
De Minaur said he has not yet spoken to Djokovic today, but did inform the Serbian superstar's manager, whom he ran into after practice, that he was withdrawing.
The best Wimbledon run of de Minaur's career concludes with the worst outcome today.
"No secret at this stage of my career this was the biggest match of my career," de Minaur said. "So I wanted to do anything I could do to play. I knew the results yesterday, but I still wanted to wake up today to [try] get some sort of miracle…
"The problem with me going out in playing is one stretch, one slide, one anything can make this injury from 3 to 6 weeks to 4 months—that’s too much to risk."
The 25-year-old Aussie is the latest star to fall from The Championships due to injury.
De Minaur follows two-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka (shoulder injury), Grigor Dimitrov (groin injury), Lucas Pouille (back injury), 17th-seeded Anna Kalinskaya, who retired down 6-3, 3-0 against former champion Elena Rybakina and Spanish surprise Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, who shocked defending champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round and reached the third round retiring in the second set against Barbora Krejicikova.