Aussie Alex de Minaur has been forced to withdraw from his Wimbledon quarter-final with Novak Djokovic with a hip injury.
The 25-year-old made the heartbreaking decision an hour before he was scheduled to take the court.
His withdrawal means seven-time champion Djokovic is through to the semi-finals.
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A devastated de Minaur confirmed he couldn’t play, while the injury places him in some doubt for the Olympics as well.
“Obviously not an announcement I wanted to make by any means,” De Minaur said at a press conference at the All England Club.
“Yeah, I’m devastated but had to pull out due to a hip injury.
“I felt a loud crack during the last three points of my match against Fils and got a scan yesterday. It confirmed this was the injury and with high risk of making it worst if I was to step on court.
“It is no secret that at this stage of my career, it was the biggest match of my career.
“I knew the results yesterday but hoped I would wake up today and feel some sort of miracle.
“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.”
De Minaur suffered the hip injury while winning the final point of his fourth round match against Arthur Fils.
He pulled up as he secured a tense four-set victory over Fils, concluding with an angled stop volley at the net after a forehand set-up shot.
There were no celebrations from him, which may have been because he was simply relieved to win (after blowing a two-set advantage), but more than likely was because he knew, in that instant, he was injured.
He walked stiffly to his chair, looking more like he’d lost than won the match, then sat deep in thought for a few minutes.
At the time he said, “I’ll be alright. I’ll find a way. You can count on me going out there, trying my hardest and playing my heart out.”
A few hours later he added, his hip was “a little bit ginger” but “it’s probably a little bit of a scare more than anything”.
There have been several injury-related withdrawals and losses this Wimbledon, most notably from an Australian viewpoint that of Thanasi Kokkinakis against Lucas Pouille after a bad fall.
Pouille then quit before he even got on court against De Minaur.
In addition, Grigor Dimitrov, Hubert Hurkacz, Madison Keys and Anna Kalinskaya are among those to have quit during matches while Alexander Zverev was troubled by the impact of a previous fall in his fourth-round loss to Taylor Fritz.
– With AAP