Wimbledon 2024: Alex de Minaur forfeits quarter-final against Novak Djokovic
Alex de Minaur has forfeited his maiden quarter-final at the All England Club, succumbing to a hip injury which also threatens his involvement in Paris.
Heartbreak for Alex de Minaur. He’s forfeited his Wimbledon quarter-final against Novak Djokovic. The withdrawal was due to the hip injury sustained in the final few points of his fourth-round win over Arthur Fils. You suspected something was crook when de Minaur failed to train on his day off at the All England Club.
Djokovic has a free ride to the semi-finals.
“I felt a loud crack during the last three points of my match against Fils and the scan yesterday confirmed that this was the injury. I haven’t been able to enjoy what I achieved this week because I knew when I heard that pop, something bad had happened. In the grand scheme of things, it could have been worse, so I am trying to hold on to that.”
De Minaur expects his hip to take three to six weeks to mend, jeopardising his involvement in the Paris Olympics.
“Obviously not an announcement I wanted to make by any means,” he said. “I’m devastated but I had to pull out … a little tear of the fibre cartilage that connects to the adductor. High risk of making it worse if I was to step on court. They haven’t been able to tell me a definite recovery plan because it’s such a unique injury. It’s based on pain, a little. Right now it can be anywhere from three to six weeks. It just depends on how quickly my body heals.”
De Minaur was totally and utterly dejected. “It’s no secret that at this stage in my career this was the biggest match of my career. 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.”
Asked his emotions over the last two days, de Minaur replied: “It’s been two days of just worrying and just waiting to see what the results showed. I’ve been struggling to sleep the last couple of days. I feel it walking. Just hoping that I would wake up and feel it a little bit less or feel it to a point where I can at least go on court. But I think it’s almost disrespectful for me to go on the court not close to 100 per cent against someone like Novak. There’s no point me going out there if I’m not going out there to try and win.”
De Minaur attempted a warm-up hit on Wednesday. Didn’t go well. “My plan always from the start was if I didn’t feel great – I knew I needed a miracle this morning,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to make sure I did warm up and I give myself a chance, I warmed up as early as possible, so I knew as early as possible what my decision was going to be. I didn’t see Novak at the courts. I saw his manager. I let him know. It hurts so much more knowing that I feel close, closer than probably ever before (to winning a major).”
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