Alex de Minaur has withdrawn from Wimbledon prior to his quarter-final clash against Novak Djokovic due to injury.
The ninth-seeded Australian announced he was unable to compete against the seven-time champion Djokovic at a press conference. He had spoken of jarring his hip in the closing stages of his fourth-round victory against Arthur Fils, and he was unable to recover in time to take on the second-seeded Djokovic on Centre Court on Wednesday.
"I'm devastated, but I had to pull out due to a hip injury, a little tear of the fiber cartilage that is at the end to the adductor," De Minaur said. "I felt a loud crack during the last three points of my match against Fils and got a scan yesterday and it confirms that this was the injury. [There is] a high risk of making it worse if I was to step on court."
[ATP APP]De Minaur defeated Fils in four sets to reach the quarter-finals at a major for the third time. The Australian, who was set to compete in the last eight at Wimbledon for the first time on Wednesday, feels he had no option but to withdraw.
"It's no secret that at this stage in my career this was the biggest match of my career," De Minaur said. "I wanted to do anything I could to play. I got the results yesterday. I knew what the results were yesterday. I still wanted to wake up today hoping that I would feel some sort of miracle and not feel it while I'm walking.
"The problem with me going out and playing is that one stretch, one slide, one anything, could make this injury go from three to six weeks to four months. It was too much to risk."
Djokovic, the No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings, advances to a semi-final clash against 13th seed Taylor Fritz or 25th seed Lorenzo Musetti at the grass-court major, where he is bidding to equal Roger Federer’s record of eight men’s singles title.
By reaching the last four this year, the 37-year-old Serbian has equalled Federer’s record of 13 appearances in the Wimbledon men’s singles semi-finals.
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