Alex de Minaur has sealed his place in the last 16 at Wimbledon for the second time in his career in unfortunate circumstances.
The world No.9 was set to take to the court on Saturday to play qualifier and former top 10 player Lucas Pouille. However, the Frenchman has been forced to pull out of the tournament due to an abdominal injury. Making it the first time in this year’s tournament that a singles player has won a match without playing a point as the result of a walkover.
Fears about Pouille’s fitness started earlier in the week when he received medical treatment during his second round meeting against Thanasi Kokkinakis, who coincidentally retired from the third set of that encounter after slipping and injuring his knee.
“I called the physiotherapist, he put two tapes on me. I told him to put on the thing that holds the most,” Pouille said after his match against Kokkinakis on Thursday.
“I don’t know what I have, we’re going to do the exams and treatments to give ourselves a chance to be as good as possible and, above all, on the court on Saturday.”
Sadly for Pouille, he wasn’t able to get fit enough in time for today’s match.
Meanwhile, de Minaur has become the third active male player from Australia to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon on multiple occasions after Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic. Coming into this year’s draw he has experienced mixed results on the grass after winning his ninth ATP title in ‘s-Hertogenbosch before losing in the first round at Queen’s.
“What’s driving me this Wimbledon is that I need to put up a decent performance here on the grass because I don’t want to be classified as a clay court specialist,” joked de Minaur who reached the quarter-finals of the French Open earlier this year.
“So I’m pushing hard. I’m trying to keep on going. Hopefully I can have a better result.”
The ninth seed will next play either Arthur Fils or Roman Safiullin.
