Alex de Minaur’s muted reaction said it all.
Reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year for the first time was a career milestone – and he would face seven-time champion Novak Djokovic – but the Australian star’s expression and the ginger way he walked to his on-court interview raised an alarm.
Alex de Minaur did not look like he had just made the Wimbledon quarter-finals after his win over Arthur Fils last year.Credit: AP
De Minaur played down the issue after jarring his right hip in a sliding manoeuvre on the third-last point of his win over Frenchman Arthur Fils, saying it was nothing but “a scare”.
But it all came to a head on the morning of the Djokovic clash, when this masthead watched de Minaur make it through only 10 minutes of a half-hour practice session at Aorangi Park with Lleyton Hewitt.
Soon after, de Minaur called a snap press conference to announce he was withdrawing.
Scans confirmed he sustained a muscle tear high on his right hip, near his abdomen, and he risked doing further damage if he played. The biggest match of de Minaur’s life was off.
“I’m devastated,” he said at the time.
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