London: Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina both advanced to the semifinals at the Wimbledon Championships on Wednesday.
Seven-time Wimbledon champion Djokovic faced no challenge in his quarterfinal match as his opponent, Alex de Minaur, announced a walkover hours before the match due to injury. The Australian No. 9 seed injured his hip during the fourth-round match against Frenchman Arthur Fils on Monday.
“I think this injury is more of a freak injury. It’s an excessive amount of force made to slide on a grass court,” explained the 25-year-old de Minaur in a press conference on Wednesday. “I only did this because at the time it was match point. So I just went for it for a slide that was probably a little bit more than normal.”
While de Minaur couldn’t take his chance to challenge Djokovic, the 37-year-old Serb progressed to the semifinals at the All England Club and will face Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, as the 25th seed saw off American Taylor Fritz in five sets.
In the women’s singles event, the 2022 champion Rybakina dominated her clash with last year’s semifinalist Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, winning 6-3, 6-2 in 61 minutes.
Two former French Open champions, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, played in the other quarterfinal on Wednesday. Krejcikova won in straight sets to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon for the first time.
