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The ninth-seeded de Minaur has withdrawn from Wimbledon due to a hip injury he sustained at the end of his 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over Arthur Fils in the fourth round.
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.
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 or 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 f 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.”
