“Devastated” De Minaur pulls out of Wimbledon due to hip injury

Australian Alex de Minaur said he was “devastated” after revealing that he was pulling out of Wimbledon due to a hip injury, handing seven-time champion Novak Djokovic a walkover into the semi-finals.

The ninth seed pulled up at the end of his quarter-final win over Arthur Fils and said a scan had shown that he would be risking further injury should he try to take on Djokovic. Though he knew he needed a miracle, he tried to practice on Wednesday morning but lasted only eight minutes in practice, before calling a press conference around lunchtime to announce what was a painful decision.

“I have to pull out due to a hip injury, a little tear of the fibrocartilage that is at the end or connects to the adductor,” he said. “I felt a loud crack during the last three points of my match against Fils. I got a scan yesterday and it confirmed that this was the injury and with high risk of making it worse if I was to step on court.”

“Biggest match of my career”

De Minaur had made it through to a second consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final – his first at Wimbledon – and had been relishing what he called “the biggest match of my career at this stage”. But doctors told him he would be risking further damage should he play, and he is now expected to be out of action for between three and six weeks, making it likely he will miss the Olympics.

“They haven’t been able to tell me a definitive recovery plan because it’s such a unique injury,” he said. “It’s based on my pain, a little. Right now, it can be anywhere from three to six weeks, it just depends how quickly my body heals.

“It’s no secret that at this stage, 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 but I still wanted to wake up today and feel some sort of miracle. But one stretch, one slide, one anything could make this injury go from three to six weeks to four months, so it’s too much to risk.

“It’s been two days of worrying. In the grand scheme of things, it could have been worse so I’m holding on to that.”

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