Injured Demon to take a break

SHATTERED over missing the Australian Open, Alex de Minaur was not prepared to risk further damage — and potentially his career — by playing at Melbourne Park with a torn stomach muscle.

Revealing he had planned to serve underarm just to compete at his favourite tournament, the Sydneysider said the severity of the injury caused him pain getting out of bed.

In the end, common sense prevailed as de Minaur was persuaded to withdraw from the grand slam.

“The risks of me playing, which I wanted to, were that it could get worse and get to a grade three tear and that involves stitches and is probably a problem for the rest of your career,” he said. “So even though it killed me, this is the right decision, and now I’ve just got to look at what’s ahead.

“Pretty much everyone around me told me that I shouldn’t play and I was still planning on going out there and, if need be, serving underarm or at 120km/h or do whatever I can. I just did not want to miss playing here.

“But the long-term risks if it got worse [were too great].”

De Minaur suffered the injury when beating Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the ATP Cup in Brisbane.

“I had some gruelling matches but I didn’t expect to injure myself, that’s for sure,” he said, referring to his five consecutive ATP Cup clashes.

“It’s just that my matches went for a very long time. It’s just playing for your country — it’s a different feeling.

“I’m going to do everything to leave it all out there and it looks like that this time it’s pushed me back for a bit.

“I felt the first bit of pain during my Shapovalov match.

“After that I took four days off, then played [Dan] Evans in a very long match, played the doubles, then had a day off, then played Rafa [Nadal].

“During that match I could feel something but I didn’t think it was that bad. Then I flew to Adelaide, got a scan and it revealed that I had this tear, which is quite a significant one compared to other ones I’ve had in the past.

“Now it’s about recovering.”