Wimbledon star in tears and match stopped as Andy Murray rages at 'ridiculous' decision
Grigor Dimitrov was forced to retire from his Wimbledon fourth-round clash with Jannik Sinner after he collapsed in pain on Centre Court on Monday evening
Grigor Dimitrov suffered a brutal injury blow against Jannik Sinner
(Image: BBC )
Grigor Dimitrov had to bow out of his fourth-round Wimbledon match against Jannik Sinner despite having a two-set advantage over the top seed.
Dimitrov grasped his chest soon after executing a powerful serve and doubled over, prompting Sinner to sprint to his aide.
Dimitrov was on the brink of causing quite the stir, having clinched the first set 6-3 and the second 7-5. Sinner, previously unchallenged in sets at this year's Championships and a favourite for the title, now faced an unforeseen obstacle.
The score was level in the third set when it became apparent Dimitrov was labouring with what seemed like a pectoral muscle issue. Right before serving, Dimitrov appeared hesitant but followed through with an ace — only to collapse onto the court straight after.
Concern immediately swept through the Dimitrov camp; as they watched on, Sinner showed his sportsmanship by crossing the net to provide comfort to Dimitrov, who exclaimed in distress: "My pec! My pec!"
Medical staff rushed in to attend to the 34-year-old as BBC commentator Andrew Cotter conveyed the gravity of the moment: "He's feeling that chest and Sinner comes quickly across, this is not good at all for Gregor Dimitrov.
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"And this would be desperately desperately sad if this is the end, and it looks very very serious, as if it's a proper strain. We saw it a couple of points before, we saw his body language," reports the Express.
Earlier on in the match, Wimbledon bosses decided to close the roof of the court at a crucial moment in the encounter.
Dimitrov served out the second set to go 6-3 7-5 up, and the referee came to the court to inform the players that the roof would be closed due to fading light, so they could switch the floodlights on.
There was a 10-minute delay while the roof closed and the umpire announced the decision to the crowd.
Two-time champion Murray raged at the situation.
He tweeted: "So ridiculous to close the roof at this stage of the match. At least an hour of light left….well over a set of tennis can still be played. .its (sic) an outdoor tournament!"
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Tim Henman, on BBC commentary took a different view, however.
"It's a judgement call but there is time that could be played without closing the roof but certainly looking for a convenient time and certainly at the end of the second set at 8.25pm, they're not going to finish this third set without shutting the roof so this is probably the best time to close the roof and then let the players get back on it," he said.
Sinner now progresses to the last eight where he will face US star Ben Shelton.
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