Novak Djokovic yesterday got a free pass to the Wimbledon semi-finals, when Australian Alex de Minaur pulled out of their quarterfinal clash because of a hip injury.
The ninth-seeded De Minaur suffered the injury at the end of his 6-2, 6-4, 4-6 and 6-3 fourth-round victory over Frenchman Arthur Fils on Monday.
Djokovic, who himself pulled out of his French Open quarterfinal with Casper Ruud last month, will face the winner of last night’s match between Taylor Fritz and Lorenzo Musetti in the semis.
Of pulling out, De Minaur says: “I’m devastated to pull out due to a hip injury – a little tear of the fibre cartilage that is at the end of or connects to the adductor.
“I felt a loud crack during the last three points of my match against Fils and got a scan yesterday and it confirmed this was the injury and with high risk of making it worse if I was to step on court.”
The 25-year-old has reached two Grand Slam quarterfinals, losing to Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open and Alexander Zverev at this year’s French Open.
He adds: “I knew the results [of the scan on Tuesday], but hoped I would wake up and feel some sort of miracle…”
Carlos Alcaraz tackles Daniil Medvedev in the other semi.