Alex de Minaur withdraws from Wimbledon 2024 with injury

Alex de Minaur has pulled out of Wimbledon 2024 due to a hip injury. The Australian tennis player was scheduled to play Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles quarter-finals at the Grand Slam tournament on Wednesday.

Currently ninth in the world tennis rankings, Alex de Minaur injured his hip during his round of 16 clash against Arthur Fils of France.

“I’m devastated but I had to pull out due to a hip injury,” de Minaur said in a press conference. “I felt a loud crack during the last three points of my match against Fils, and the scan on Tuesday confirmed that this was the injury.”

“It’s no secret that, at this stage of my career, this was the biggest match of my career. So wanted to do anything I could to play. 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,” the Aussie added.

The match against seven-time champion Novak Djokovic was set to be Alex de Minaur’s first quarter-final appearance in six attempts at the Wimbledon Championships.

De Minaur’s withdrawal means Djokovic made his 13th men’s singles Wimbledon semi-final, equalling Roger Federer’s record in the Open Era. The Serb will face Taylor Fritz or Lorenzo Musetti in the semi-finals on Friday.

Alex de Minaur, meanwhile, had featured in the last eight of the French Open in June and secured the ATP grass-court title at ‘s-Hertogenbosch earlier this month. He is also in the Australian tennis contingent for the Paris 2024 Olympics and faces a race against time to get fit for the showpiece in France.

A total of 14 Australian tennis players, meanwhile, featured across the men’s and women’s singles competitions at Wimbledon 2024. Only Alex de Minaur, however, made it past the third round.

James Duckworth, Rinky Hijikata, Chris O’Connell, Max Purcell and Alex Bolt were ousted in the opening round of men’s singles.

Jordan Thompson, Aleksandar Vukic, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Adam Walton were knocked out in the second while Alexei Popyrin’s tournament ended in the pre-quarterfinals.

In the women’s singles, Ajla Tomljanovic and Olivia Gadecki suffered first round exits while world No. 82 Daria Saville lost her second round match.

In men’s doubles, Australia’s Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson have made it to the semi-finals after defeating Argentine pair Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez by a 6-4, 6(8)-7(10) 6-3 scoreline in the quarters.

World No. 1 Matthew Ebden and India’s Rohan Bopanna, second seeded in the men’s doubles, crashed out in the second round after a tie-break loss against German pair Hendrik Jebens and Constantin Frantzen.

John Peers and Rinky Hijikata, too, were knocked out in the men’s doubles second round while Thanasi Kokkinakis and Canada’s Denis Shapovalov suffered a first round exit.

In the women’s doubles, world No. 9 Ellen Perez and USA’s Nicole Melichar-Martinez were defeated in the second round while Daria Saville and the People’s Republic of China’s Yuan Yue ended their campaign in the first round.

Australia’s Matthew Ebden and Ellen Perez are the top seeds in the mixed doubles competition and their first round clash against Andres Molteni and the USA’s Asia Muhammad stands suspended due to rain delays.

Purcell and his Ukrainian partner Dayana Yastremska bowed out in the second round.