The biggest story in the second day of the quarterfinals at Wimbledon on Wednesday was the fact there were only three matches instead of four. That is because Alex de Minaur of Sydney pulled out of his quarterfinal match against 24-time grand slam singles champion Novak Djokovic of Belgrade, Serbia.
De Minaur suffered an injury in the final game of his fourth round win on Monday. In a four set battle on Court 1, de Minaur cracked his hip, but continued to finish the game, before beating France’s Arthur Fils, 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
After the match, de Minaur was seen walking very gingerly. He even was asked how he was in the post-match interview. De Minaur’s initial response was “fine.” However after a practice session leading up to the quarterfinal matchup against Djokovic, de Minaur was clearly not fine, and had to withdraw as a result.
This was the latest a player has had to withdraw at Wimbledon in the men’s singles draw since 2022 when Rafael Nadal of Manacor, Spain pulled out of the semifinals because of an abdominal injury. However, this time the withdrawal benefited an Australian as Nick Kyrgios of Canberra, Australia reached the final.
It should be noted that earlier this year that Djokovic withdrew from his quarterfinal match at the French Open against Casper Ruud of Norway because of a knee issue. After minor surgery, he has looked very good at Wimbledon so far. He will now play Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in one of two semifinals on Friday. The other semifinal has Carlos Alcaraz of Spain versus Daniil Medvedev of Russia.
In the women’s semifinals, Donna Vekic of Croatia will be up against Jasmine Paolini of Italy. Meanwhile, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan will face Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.
