Top seed Jannik Sinner breathed a sigh of relief after reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals on Monday but was left feeling sorry for Grigor Dimitrov who retired from their match with a pectoral injury after dominating throughout and going up 6-3 7-5 2-2.
Dimitrov, the 19th seed, won the opening two sets and held serve with an ace in the third but then fell to the ground, saying: “my pec, my pec” as a concerned Sinner walked round the net to ask what was wrong.
Sinner stayed by the side of Dimitrov who shed tears while he received treatment and the Bulgarian eventually threw in the towel and walked off to a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd.
“I don’t know what to say because he’s an incredible player. I think we all saw this today,” Sinner said of his opponent, who had withdrawn from his past four Grand Slams with injuries.
“He’s been so unlucky in the past couple of years. He’s an incredible player, a good friend of mine also, and we understand each other very well off the court too.