Novak Djokovic’s Wimbledon journey continued smoothly as he advanced to his 13th semifinal at the tournament on Wednesday after his quarterfinal opponent, Alex de Minaur, withdrew due to a hip injury. Djokovic, who recently had knee surgery, has been in fine form at the All England Club despite concerns about his fitness, dropping only two sets so far.
The 37-year-old Djokovic faced a relatively easy path to the semifinals, with wins over a qualifier, a wild-card entrant, and one seeded player. Originally set to play against No. 9 seed de Minaur, Djokovic now has three days off before Friday’s semifinals.
Apart from his on-court performance, Djokovic also made headlines for his interactions with spectators at Centre Court, where he expressed feeling disrespected by some fans during his match against Holger Rune.
In the next round, Djokovic will face the winner of the match between No. 13 Taylor Fritz of the United States and No. 25 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, who were scheduled to play their quarterfinal on Wednesday.
On the women’s side, the quarterfinal matchups featured 2022 champion Elena Rybakina against No. 21 Elina Svitolina, and No. 13 Jelena Ostapenko against No. 31 Barbora Krejcikova, both past title winners at the French Open.
With 49 Grand Slam semifinal appearances, Djokovic holds the record for the most in men’s tennis history, tying with Roger Federer for 13 semifinal appearances at Wimbledon.
De Minaur’s withdrawal adds to a series of injury-related exits in Week 2 of the tournament, including Grigor Dimitrov in the men’s draw and Madison Keys and Anna Kalinskaya in the women’s.
After experiencing a hip issue following his fourth-round match victory, de Minaur underwent tests revealing the extent of the injury. Despite attempting to practice on Wednesday, he ultimately decided that playing against Djokovic would risk prolonging his recovery time.
De Minaur expressed disappointment at missing out on what he described as the biggest match of his career at Wimbledon and acknowledged the risk of exacerbating his injury by playing.
