Daniil Medvedev ‘felt a strange pop in adductor’ and feared playing on would keep him out for six months
Daniil Medvedev retired in bizarre circumstances from his Astana Open semi-final against Novak Djokovic and he has shed more light on his decision to throw in the towel at the ATP 500 event.
Second seed Medvedev and Djokovic slugged it out for nearly 80 minutes on the indoor hard courts of Nur-Sultan as they shared the opening two sets, but then out of the blue the Russian retired at the conclusion of the second set tie-breaker with the score 4-6, 7-6 (8-6).
He later revealed the he pulled a muscle and even if he ended up winning the match against Djokovic, he would not have been able to play in the final on Sunday against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“If I won, I would not play the final. I was like, ‘okay, I just try to hit some shots’,” the 26-year-old said.
“If I manage to win, well I cannot do anything, I will retire. If I lose, congrats to Novak, he’s still in great shape. Good luck to him in the final.”
Medvedev had a small hernia procedure in April and spent several weeks on the sidelines and he admitted his latest injury, which came after a “pop”, would have kept him out for a lengthy period.
This was bizarre 🤷🏼♂️ pic.twitter.com/USgVX2L0m2
— Kevin Palmer (@RealKevinPalmer) October 8, 2022
“It’s the second time in my life I retired like this with a pulled muscle,” the 2021 US Open revealed. “So here, on the second point of the tie-break, I felt a little bit [of a] strange pop in my adductor. I first thought maybe it is cramp and after the point I was like, ‘No, probably not a cramp.’
“And during the tie-break, I felt I can play like five, 10 more points but that’s it. If I play one more set, you can do it, but you can probably miss half a year instead of one month.”
Medvedev was looking to win his second title of the 2022 season following his success at the Los Cabos Open in August while he is yet to confirm his place in the season-ending ATP Finals.
However, he only needs a few more points as he is currently fifth in the Race to Turin with 3,555 points, 855 ahead of Alexander Zverev in ninth place although the German is out injured while Fritz (10th) is another 15 points adrift with Djokovic 11th on 2,520 points.
Medvedev is yet to confirm how long he will be out for and his next tournament. He is expected to compete at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament, the Paris Masters, from October 31, but it remains to be seen if he will play any events before that.
READ MORE: Danill Medvedev has ‘no reason to cry’ about losing No 1 spot to Carlos Alcaraz as he looks to the future
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