Novak Djokovic is into the Wimbledon semifinals after his quarterfinal opponent, Alex de Minaur, was forced to withdraw due to a hip injury.
The No. 9 seed de Minaur was set to face the seven-time Wimbledon winner on Wednesday at Centre Court. He told reporters that he heard a crack near the end of his fourth-round win over Arthur Fils on Monday.
“Obviously not an announcement I wanted to make, by any means,” said de Minaur, who realized he could not play during a Wednesday practice session. “I’m devastated.”
“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. I knew what the results were yesterday, but I still wanted to wake up today and feel some sort of miracle and not feel it while I’m walking.”
“The problem with me going out and playing is that one stretch, one slide, one anything, can make this injury [recovery] go from three to six weeks to four months. It’s too much to risk.”
Djokovic will now face Taylor Fritz or Lorenzo Musetti in Friday’s semifinal, which will be the 13th time he’s gone that far at Wimbledon, matching Roger Federer for most by a man in tournament history.
Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz will meet in the other men’s semifinal on Friday.