“I’m devastated” | Alex de Minaur withdraws before Djokovic game | Press Conference | Wimbledon 2024

Watch the press conference as Australia’s Alex de Minaur says he “devestated” as he withdraws due to injury, ahead of his game with Serbia’s Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon 2024

#Wimbledon #Tennis #Interview #AlwaysLikeNeverBefore #Australia #Injury

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morning everybody um Alex is going to make a statement and then we’ll take a few questions well obviously not an announcement I wanted to make by any means um uh yeah I’m I’m devastated but I had to pull out um due to uh hip injury a um uh little tear of the uh fiber cartilage that um kind of uh is at the end or connects to the aductor um I I felt a loud uh crack um during the last three points of my match against Phils and and um got a scan yesterday and it confirmed that uh this was the injury and uh with uh yeah high risk of making it worse if I was to step on court so yeah Courtney very sorry to hear that um what what does it mean for this was a big big moment in your career you’ve also got another big moment in a month or so what what are we talking that in terms of the Olympics Etc uh if I’m completely honest I don’t know they haven’t been able to tell me a a definite um recovery uh plan cuz it’s such a unique injury um it’s uh based on pain a little uh right now it can be anywhere from you know 3 to six weeks it just depends on how quickly my body heals hey Alex sorry about all this um was there I mean I think I know the answer to the question given that you said this is based on pain was there any chance that you could uh that that you could have kind of Taken doing things that athletes do these days taking painkillers and weld their way onto through or attempted it CU I we all know how desperately you probably wanted to playay this play this match or was this just an absolute no-brainer well it’s no secret that this at this stage of my career was the biggest match of my career right so um wanted to do anything I could to play um I C the results yesterday I knew what what the results were yesterday but I still wanted to wake up today hoping that I would feel some sort of miracle and and not feel feel it whilst I’m walking right um the problem with me going out and playing is that one stretch one slide one anything can make this injury go from 3 to six weeks to four months so it’s yes it was too much to risk really how would you describe what you’ve gone through physically and emotionally in the last two days um yes it’s devastating um no way to beat around the bush uh I’ve gone from you know achieving well I haven’t really been able to enjoy uh what I’ve achieved this week because I knew I knew as soon as I felt that pop I knew something bad had happen so it’s been two days of just Waring and just waiting to see what the results showed and in the grand scheme of things it could have been worse so I’m trying to hold on to that Alex said we’re all we’re all devastated for you I’m really sorry to hear the news I just watched your practice this morning you mentioned you wanted to see if there was a miracle there did that confirm it for you when you stepped on the court or did you know even before you got on I mean I I’ve I’ve been struggling to sleep for the last couple days um so I feel it walking uh just hoping that I would wake up and feel it a little bit less or feel it to a point where I can at least go on court but again uh you know um I think it’s almost disrespectful for me to not go on the court close to 100% against someone like Novak um because there’s no point of me going out there if you know I’m not going out there to try and and win sorry to hear Alex but um have you had an injury like this before do you know what you’re dealing with no this is uh completely unique new injury that they’ve got very little research on it’s it’s four years worth of research therefore that’s why they couldn’t give me a approximate on recovery time it’s it’s more just a little bit of Hope wait and see um so yeah it’s it’s quite a unique injury that um I’m hoping the the pain goes down um with a bit of rest and then ultimately it’s it’s kind of working against against the clock to get back as soon as possible hi Alex uh so sorry to hear the news can you pinpoint exactly where it is on your hip that you feel the pain uh yeah it’s um it’s quite high up it’s it’s almost where the aductor and the ab the kind of insertion there that’s where uh I feel it um yeah it kind of happened on a when I slid out to a forand um created a lot of force and heard heard that crack which yeah knew it was never going to be something good you had a chance to speak to Novak or his Camp to reveal to this before the announcement yeah um my plan always from from the start was if I didn’t feel great yesterday so I knew I was I needed a miracle this morning so that’s why I wanted to make sure when I did warm up and I gave myself a chance I warmed up as early as possible so I knew as early as possible what my decision was going to be so I didn’t see uh noac at the courts yet I saw his uh his manager and I just let him no um but yeah I haven’t seen no yet Alex sorry to you about your injury may you haven’t had much time to process what’s going in the tournament so far in terms of positives but I just to ask you what would you say have been the positives from the week in terms of your level um probably the positives is that I’m playing these tournaments and I’m I’m in the deep end of them it’s probably what hurts so much more knowing that I’m I feel close right um closer than probably ever before I feel like you know I’m putting myself in these positions and you know it’s a shame that I can’t go out there and and play so the positives is I make back toback quarterfinals at slams and I’m getting to the deep end end of these these tournaments uh more frequently and it’s yeah it’s where I want to be um very sorry to hear this um is there anything to say about the quality of the courts with that slip I think you you answered this a bit yesterday just to continue on that and um also do you have a message for your British fans who have really take with your success taking on their wing as an honor break this week yeah uh I think this injury it’s it’s more of a freak injury it’s an excessive amount of force made to to slide on a grass c um I only did this cuz at the time it was it was match point right so I just went for it for a slide that was probably a little bit more than than normal um and it’s something that you know there was no signs of any fatigue any problems beforehand it’s just yeah happened on a freak mov um to to the British fans uh that have supported me well obviously extremely disappointed that uh I couldn’t go out there and keep on competing but yeah I felt I felt the love I felt great playing in front of them I felt like this has always been a very special place for me and um you know I’m hoping with the years to come I’ve got more and more to show at this tournament and you never know hopefully go quite day one yeah Alex you talked about the 3 to six week timeline how quickly your body recovers but can you give us an idea of what you actually have to do to try to rehab the injury try to get back faster like what will the process be from there well the the body needs to naturally heal so the tear needs to naturally heal heal um there’s that process and there’s the process of rehabbing uh the area um around it and kind of you know helping it be safe um it’s an injury that’s that is all based on on pain on my pain uh so I’ve got to do exercises that don’t irritate the area more and it allows it to heal so that’s why it’s kind of all up to myself and my body how quickly it heals and um in the past similar injuries that maybe I’ve had with osteitis pubis I’ve come back sooner than than expected so I’m I’m hoping that’s the case for this one as well I ask if you’ve spoken to Nick curios about his comeback it sounds like he’s getting closer and what he’s saying about it and what your hopes are for his return to the T um yeah I’ve seen him hitting um I think you know he he looks like he’s he’s feeling a lot better um as far as I know I think um the US hard court is when he’s planning to return um I don’t know the exact specifics but you know it’ll all be depending on his his injury and how he’s uh how he’s feeling great we’ll wrap it up there thank you thank you