By Marc McGowan
A shattered Alex de Minaur has withdrawn from his blockbuster Wimbledon quarter-final with Novak Djokovic because of a “freak” hip injury that he risked making worse.
De Minaur made the announcement at an impromptu media conference hours before he was due to take to centre court to face the 24-time grand slam champion, after a last-ditch practice session to try to see if he could play.
The world No.9 hurt his hip sliding to hit a forehand on the first of his two match points against Arthur Fils on Monday, with a scan on Tuesday confirming a tear high on his right hip, near his abdomen.
De Minaur suffered a hip tear during his fourth-round win over Arthur Fils.Credit: AP
“I’m devastated, but I had to pull out due to a hip injury; a little tear of the fibre cartilage that kind of is at the end or connects 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 confirmed this was the injury, and I was at high risk of making it worse if I was to step on court.
“It’s quite high up. It’s almost where the adductor and the ab [meet] … that’s where I feel it. It kind of happened when I slid out to a forehand and created a lot of force and I heard that crack, which was never going to be something good.”
De Minaur was unable to confirm whether he would be fit to represent Australia at the Olympic Games in Paris, with the tennis tournament starting from July 27. He had to pull out of the last Olympics because he contracted COVID-19.
He said the recovery time would be anywhere from three to six weeks, depending on how quickly he heals and his pain threshold, but that there was “very little” research about this particular rare injury.
De Minaur said there was “an excessive amount of force” in the sliding motion that caused the injury, and he slid more than he typically would because it was a match point. But there were no warning signs of fatigue or weakness before the injury occurred.
“It’s no secret that at this stage of my career, it was the biggest match of my career. I wanted to do anything I could to play,” he said.
“I knew what the [scan] results were yesterday, but I still wanted to wake up today, feel some sort of miracle, and not feel it while walking. The problem with me going out and playing was that one stretch, one slide or one anything, could make this injury go from three-to-six weeks to four months, so it was too much to risk.
“It’s devastating. [There is] no way to beat around the bush. I haven’t really been able to enjoy what I’ve achieved this week because I knew as soon as I felt that pop [that] something bad had happened.
“It’s been two days of worrying, and waiting to see what the results showed. In the grand scheme of things, it could have been worse.”
De Minaur did not schedule a hit on Wimbledon’s outdoor or indoor courts on Tuesday, but booked in for a half-hour, late-morning session with Lleyton Hewitt at Aorangi Park on Wednesday, hours out from his quarter-final.
Alex de Minaur slides on the grass during his match against Arthur Fils.Credit: Getty Images
This masthead watched the session, which lasted fewer than 10 minutes before he and his team left the court.
“I have been struggling to sleep the last couple of days. I feel it walking, and I was just hoping I would wake up and feel it a little bit less, or that I could at least go on court,” de Minaur said.
“But I think it’s almost disrespectful for me not to go on the court close to 100 per cent against someone like Novak because there’s no point in me going out there if I’m not going out there to try and win.”
De Minaur stretched beforehand, without any dynamic movement, under the watchful eye of his strength-and-conditioning coach Emilio Poveda Pagan, and with his agent Kathryn Oyeniyi filming on her phone.
The 25-year-old still appeared to be moving gingerly as he walked to Aorangi Park’s No.1 court, with a cameraman following him.
The session involved some light hitting from the baseline for about five minutes with Hewitt, without de Minaur testing his movement on his right side. He finished by rolling his arm over on some serves, but it was clear at that point he was in major doubt.
His coach, Adolfo Gutierrez, Davis Cup assistant coach Jaymon Crabb, and de Minaur’s mother, Esther, and other family also watched the brief session.
De Minaur is projected to rise to a career-high No.6 in the world rankings post-Wimbledon, unless American Taylor Fritz reaches the Wimbledon final. In that scenario, the Australian would rise only two spots and match his previous high of No.7.
Watch Wimbledon 2024 from July 1 live and exclusively free on Nine and 9Now with every match streaming ad-free, live and on demand with centre court in 4K on Stan Sport.
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