Jannik Sinner was on the ropes in the Wimbledon fourth round on Monday night. And then, suddenly, he wasn’t.
Grigor Dimitrov led the world No. 1 two sets to love (6-3, 7-5) when from out of nowhere he was forced to retire after suffering an apparent pectoral injury while serving at 2-2 in the third. Dimitrov immediately grabbed his right-shoulder area in obvious pain, to the extent that retirement seemed almost certain. Following a brief off-court visit with the trainer, the worst fears of all involved were confirmed.
Plagued by all kinds of injuries, the 34-year-old Bulgarian has now retired from a whopping five consecutive Grand Slams dating back to Wimbledon last summer.
“I don’t take this as a win at all,” Sinner said during a brief on-court interview. “I don’t know what to say. He is an incredible player; we all saw this today. He’s been so unlucky in the past couple of years. “He’s an incredible player and a good friend of mine off the court…. If he could play in the next round, he would honestly deserve it.
“I hope he has a speedy recovery. (It’s) very unlucky from his side and a very unfortunate moment for us to witness.”
Sinner, who appeared to be dealing with a right-elbow issue of his own, will face Ben Shelton in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Ben Rothenberg and I break down the Wimbledon results and upcoming matchups on his No Challenges Remaining podcast
devastating
Got it wrong I thought Sinner had retired, agree such a shame, we’ll never know if Sinner would’ve come back from two sets down anyway, definitely dodged a bullet though
Horrible injury. I hope Sinner and his MRI are not “positive”. Would love to see Shelton against Sinner in the QF. Speedy recovery for Baby Fed.
Sinner must be feeling thIngs are turning his way, after RG…
depends on the elbow….
I understood Dimitrov had this serious injury already and was not expected to go far here. Thought moutet could beat him
Too much missionary?
Just horrible for Dimi. He was playing really really well.
was he gonna win?
Who knows?! Had Very good chance…
Two sets up is no guarantee as weve seen…
yep, i’d say 50/50 at best for Grigor