Alex de Minaur has announced he won’t be able to compete in his scheduled Wimbledon quarterfinal against Novak Djokovic.
London, Great Britain, 10 July 2024 | Leigh Rogers
A devastated Alex de Minaur has withdrawn from Wimbledon 2024 with a hip injury.
The 25-year-old revealed the news to media today at the All England Club, hours before his scheduled quarterfinal meeting with world No.2 Novak Djokovic.
“Obviously not an announcement I wanted to make by any means,” an emotional De Minaur said. “Yeah, I’m devastated, but 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 described it as “a freak injury”.
“There were no signs of any fatigue, any problems beforehand. It just, yeah, happened on a freak movement,” he said.
The world No.9 revealed he heard “a loud crack” in the final stages of his fourth-round win against Frenchman Arthur Fils and underwent scans yesterday to investigate.
“I wanted to do anything I could to play. I knew what the results were yesterday, but I still wanted to wake up today and feel some miracle, and not feel it whilst I’m walking,” he said.
“The problem with me going out and playing is one stretch, one slide, one anything can make this injury go from three-to-six weeks to four months. It was too much to risk.”
De Minaur described the chance to face Djokovic in the Wimbledon quarterfinals as “the biggest match of my career”.
“I have 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,” he said.
“(But) I think it’s almost disrespectful for me to not go on the court close to 100 per cent against someone like Novak.”
De Minaur tried to remain upbeat, noting he could be proud of advancing to back-to-back Grand Slam quarterfinals.
“The positives is I’m playing these tournaments, and I’m in the deep end of them. It’s probably why it hurts so much more knowing that I feel close, closer than probably ever before,” he said.
“I feel like I’m putting myself in these positions, and it’s a shame that I can’t go out there and play.”
He admitted the past 48 hours have been emotionally challenging, making it hard to appreciate his on-court success.
“I haven’t really been able to enjoy what I’ve achieved this week because I knew. I knew as soon as I felt that pop, I knew something bad had happened,” he said.
“So it’s been two days of just worrying and just waiting to see what the results showed. In the grand scheme of things it could have been worse, so I’m trying to hold on to that.”
The Australian No.1, who has been selected to make his Olympic debut later this month, also revealed he is unsure when he will be back on court next.
“If I am completely honest, they haven’t been able to give a definite recovery plan as it is a unique injury,” he said.
“It’s based on pain. Right now, it can be anywhere from three-to-six weeks, it depends how quickly my body heals.”
This is the first time that De Minaur, who has contested 536 singles matches across his professional career, has handed a walkover to an opponent.
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