Heartbreak for Australian tennis star Alex De Minaur following his dream run at Wimbledon.
The 25-year-old has been forced to withdraw from his quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic after succumbing to a hip injury.
The ‘Demon’ suffered the freak injury in the final stages of his Round 16 win over Arthur Fils on Monday.
Despite trying to push through this morning, De Minaur called it quits and pulled out of the showdown just hours before he was due to play against the ‘Joker’.
The Aussie appeared visibly upset when breaking the news to media overnight, admitting he was “devastated”.
“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 worse if I was to step on court,” he continued.
“It’s no secret that at this stage of my career, it was the biggest match of my career, so I wanted to do anything I could to play.
“I knew the results yesterday but I still wanted to wake up today hoping I would feel some sort of miracle.
“The problem with me going out and playing is that one stretch, one slide, one anything can make this injury go from three to six weeks to four months.”
De Minaur said the timeline for his return to play was still up in the air, as there’s “very little research” out there on the “completely unique” injury he suffered.
“There’s four years worth of research; that’s why they couldn’t give me an approximate on recovery time. It’s more just a little bit of hope, wait and see,” he said.
“I’m hoping the pain goes down with a bit of rest and then ultimately it’s kind of working against the clock to get back as soon as possible.”
Djokovic will now face Lorenzo Musetti in the semi-finals.
