Former Wimbledon semi-finalist forced to retire after crashing into wall
Canadian Wimbledon star Denis Shapovalov was forced to retire after suffering a horror injury during his first-round clash with Pablo Carreno Busta. Shapovalov, a former world No. 10, crashed into the wall on the corner of Court 6 at SW19 when he injured his shoulder.
Both the umpire and Shapovalov's opponent rushed across the court to help, with the player clearly in distress. He tried to play on, but after losing the second set 7-6, felt that he could no longer continue and risk injuring the arm further - handing Carreno Busta his first-ever victory at Wimbledon.
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Shapovalov was sent wide by a strong Carreno Busta forehand to the corner and the North American hit the wall at high speed. Despite being covered by padding, the injury was enough to cause Shapovalov to prematurely end his match.
He appeared to tell his opponent: “Sorry man, I think I f***ed it.”
The 27-year-old saw a physio come to his aid at the time of the incident, but also at the end of the second set, having forced but ultimately lost a 9-7 tiebreaker in the second.
Shapovalov has won just one match since mid-April, having fallen in the French Open first round to Jaime Faria, including a string of opening-round defeats at Libema Open, Italian Open and Madrid Open.
He is a former semi-finalist at Wimbledon, beating Andy Murray in the process before falling to Novak Djokovic in the final four in 2021.
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Reflecting on that run, Shapovalov told the ATP this week: “Yeah, I think that was a bit of the issue against Novak. "I kind of got an early break on him in that semi-final and before the match I thought okay, obviously against Novak I don’t have many chances, but I’ll try to see what I can do against him.
“I honestly felt like I was outplaying him the majority of the first set and maybe a little bit too confident in that moment, you know he kind of stayed with me, was able to break me back and get that first set, so that killed a little bit of confidence.
“I kind of felt in that moment, like okay I’m outplaying the best grass court player at the moment. I felt like I could definitely win this match and who knows in the final, anything could happen, so it’s definitely one of those experience losses.”