Novak Djokovic advances to the Wimbledon semifinals as his quarterfinal opponent, Alex de Minaur, had to withdraw due to a hip injury, as reported by Wimbledon.
De Minaur, seeded No. 9, was supposed to play Djokovic on Centre Court on Wednesday but was unable to due to the injury sustained during his previous match against Arthur Fils.
“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.”
In the upcoming semifinal, Djokovic will face the winner of the match between Taylor Fritz and Lorenzo Musetti. This will mark Djokovic’s 13th semifinal appearance at Wimbledon, tying him with Roger Federer for the most semifinal appearances by a man in the tournament’s history.
On the other side of the men’s semifinals, Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz are set to compete on Friday.