Ash Barty and Nick Kyrgios have rallied around Aussie star Alex de Minaur after the 26-year-old was forced to withdraw from his match against Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon. The Aussie tennis community was left stunned on Wednesday when World No.6 de Minaur withdrew due to injury from his clash against Djokovic in the quarter-final at Wimbledon.
De Minaur appeared to injure his hip against Arthur Fils on match point in the round of 16 as he hobbled off court. The Aussie was confident he would recover in time for the clash against Djokovic – also carrying an injury – with a two day break.
“I’ll be alright. I’ll find a way,” he said. “You can count on me going out there, trying my hardest and playing my heart out.” Unfortunately, de Minaur did not train during his day off and eventually announced he would withdraw from the match. “I’m devastated but I had to pull out due to a hip injury, a little tear of the fibre cartilage that kind of is at the end or connects to the adductor,” de Minaur said.
And Aussie tennis icon Barty was left ‘broken’ for the 26-year-old. Barty, winner of Wimbledon in 2021, felt for de Minaur considering it was arguably the biggest match of his young career. Although she was confident de Minaur could learn from the setback. “I’m broken for Alex. I mean, you could see how much it means to him. Like he said, this was the biggest match of his life. This was the opportunity that he had worked so hard for,” she said.
“(But) he is a resilient athlete. He’s a ripping guy. I know that this will be a challenge. But there will be a silver lining somewhere along the way that he’ll grow from, absolutely. He’s too intelligent and too driven and passionate and motivated to not learn from it and not grow from it.”
Nick Kyrgios praises Alex de Minaur after setback
De Minaur also found support in fellow male tennis star Kyrgios. Kyrgios has missed a year of tennis due to a brutal knee injury. And the Wimbledon finalist sent a message of support to de Minaur and claimed the quarter-final match was looming to be a SW19 classic.
“I think Novak was looking better and better throughout the tournament but Alex De Minaur is playing the best tennis of his life,” Kyrgios told the BBC. Kyrgios feels de Minaur made the right decision having consulted his team with the US Open still to play for in 2024.
De Minaur will now most certainly miss the Paris Olympics for Australia having admitted he will miss between three to six weeks. “I felt a loud crack during the last three points of my match against Fils, and a scan yesterday confirmed the injury and that I was at high risk of making it worse if I was to step on court.
“They haven’t been able to give me a definite recovery time because it’s such a unique injury. Right now, it could be anywhere from three-to-six weeks out, it just depends how quickly my body heals. The problem with me going out and playing was that one stretch, one slide or one anything, could make this injury go from three to six weeks out to four months, so it was too much to risk.”
De Minaur admitted the decision to withdraw was extremely hard having reached a career-high World No.6 ranking during the tournament. “It’s been two days of worrying, and waiting to see what the results showed. In the grand scheme of things, it could have been worse,” he admitted.
RELATED:
- Ash Barty makes emphatic call on full-time return to competitive tennis
- Novak Djokovic slams ‘disrespectful’ act as storm erupts at Wimbledon
“I have been struggling to sleep the last couple of days. I feel it walking, just hoping I would wake up and feel it a little bit less, or that I could at least go on court. But I think it’s almost disrespectful for me not to go on the court close to 100 per cent against someone like Novak.
“This is a completely unique injury they’ve got very little research on. There’s four years worth of research, so that’s why they couldn’t give me an approximate recovery time. It’s more just hope, wait and see. I’m hoping the pain goes down with a bit of rest.”
