MADRID OPEN INJURY CURSE STRIKES AGAIN AS ANOTHER HUGE NAME PULLS OUT

Daniil Medvedev became the latest high-profile player to tumble out of the Madrid Open due to injury, as he was forced to retire one set into his quarter-final against Jiri Lehecka.

After Carlos Alcaraz was beaten by Andrey Rublev while nursing a forearm injury and Jannik Sinner pulled out before playing his quarter-final in Madrid with a hip problem, Medvedev became the latest player to succumb to injury in the Spanish capital.

Medvedev went off court for treatment on his right upper leg when leading 3-2, as he suggested to the ATP physio that he had trouble moving to his right side.

He received treatment before returning to court and tried to continue, but called time on the match when Lehecka took the first set 6-4.

“It’s never easy to win a match like this,” said Lehecka. “If I could choose how to win this match it wouldn’t be like that. Never easy to see your opponent struggling.

“At that moment you just need to focus on yourself.. trying to get the maximum level out of yourself. You never know what kind of injury it is, if he’s just feeling unwell or it’s something bad. If you give him space to recover it can be bad for you.

“I tried to focus on myself and as we saw at the end of the first set he was clearly struggling with the movement. Bad luck for him.”

Medvedev is one of the most active players at the top of the ATP Tour and is not prone to injuries, so he will face an anxious few days as he waits to discover the extent of the problem.

“It was a return when he served and volleyed and I don’t know if I felt it on the return or on the dropshot, but when I ran, I wanted to run faster and faster during the movement, and suddenly felt my hip, like, kind of blocked,” said Medvedev.

“I couldn’t sprint like when you strain a muscle or have a spasm, which is very tough to know which of the two.

“So then working with the physio, I asked him if I could make it worse. He said if it’s a tear, then yes. If it’s a spasm, no.

“I tried to go to play, and my mind was not letting me to go full, so at the end of the set, I was (thinking) if I want to continue, I just try to sprint to the net.

“If I don’t feel anything, I will try to go a little bit more full and see how it goes – when I sprinted I felt pain. So I was, like: no need to continue.

“Now I cannot say more. Hopefully for sure tomorrow or day after, because normally you need time, MRI, et cetera, to see what it is, and if it’s something five days, two weeks, I have no idea. So cannot tell you more.”

READ MORE: Jannik Sinner warned Novak Djokovic ‘should never be considered a finished tennis player’

Alcaraz has already suggested he is a doubt to play in next week’s ATP 1000 Internazionali d’Italia tournament in Rome, with his forearm injury a major concern ahead of the French Open.

The Italian fans will also be concerned about the fitness of their local hero Sinner, who was forced out of the Madrid Open with an injury that he admits has been troubling him for some time.

Sinner will feel pressure to play in Rome, but he may feel it is prudent to be cautious ahead of what should be his big focus at the French Open later this month.

Now Medvedev is an injury doubt and while he has only discovered his best form on clay later in his career, he would be a major contender for the title in Rome if Alcaraz and Sinner are missing.

This latest injury blow means the ATP Tour event in Madrid will have the most unexpected of semi-finals line-ups, with the unseeded Félix Auger-Aliassime taking on Lehecka and American Taylor Fritz playing Andrey Rublev.

Few would have predicted any of those four players would have reached this stage of the competition, but the extended tournament in Madrid has claimed some high profile victims.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Serbia, Novak Djokovic is looking on as his biggest rivals each pick up injury worries.

Djokovic was criticised for skipping the Madrid Open, but he will be fresh and rested ahead of the ATP 1000 tournament in Rome and then the French Open.

2024-05-02T20:38:07Z dg43tfdfdgfd