Australian tennis great Todd Woodbridge says Alex de Minaur faces a giant task to be well enough to compete at the Olympics, after he Alex de Minaur.
The ninth seed was hours away from his centre court quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic when he made the heartbreaking announcement.
“You just can hear the utter devastation in his voice,” Woodbridge said in Nine’s coverage of Wimbledon.
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“What’s so hard about this is two days ago, before this happens, he knows if he gets through after (Frenchman Arthur) Fils he’s got a great chance of beating Novak Djokovic.
“Novak is not at his best, but the whole draw seems to be falling nicely for Novak.”
Woodbridge said de Minaur should be comforted by his performance at the grand slam despite his heartache.
“He’s played brilliantly here, he’s got himself to a quarter-final and he’s still got more to give when he gets back to other Wimbledons,” he said.
“But sport can be fleeting, those moments may not come again and that’s why his reaction is so devastated like it is. He’s almost on the verge of tears.”
Tony Jones agreed, saying in between his press conference and interviews today, de Minaur was “utterly and completely devastated”.
“I needed a miracle. That’s what I needed waking up this morning,” Alex de Minaur told host Tony Jones on the Nine coverage. Nine
“He knew when he woke up this morning” how grim the situation was, Jones said.
Woodbridge said de Minaur had revealed how bad the suspected injury was as soon as he won match point against Fils.
“When you look at the pictures when he was on the court and he sort of shakes his head and his eyes were so big because when something happens in an injury like that and you feel a click or something snaps like that, you know you’re not coming back quickly,” the nine-time Wimbledon doubles champion said.
De Minaur said he felt a “loud crack” in the last three match points against Fils, and his fears were confirmed yesterday when scans identified the injury.
Alex de Minaur withdraws from his Wimbledon quarter-final against Novak Djokovic Supplied
Woodbridge and Jones agreed it would be a tall ask for de Minaur to be fit for The Olympics, given how long the injury in that area would take to heal.
“It is gonna be very, very tough for him, there’s probably a couple of weeks, it’d be line ball,” Jones said.
“It would be line ball but … if you can get the right treatment and everything’s OK … you never know what’s available to you to get back out on court,” Woodbridge said.