Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 4, 2024 Poland's Hubert Hurkacz in action during his second round match against France's Arthur Fils REUTERS/Matthew Childs
LONDON (Reuters) -Seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz became the third men's top-eight player to make an early exit as he retired from his second-round clash against Frenchman Arthur Fils with a knee injury on Thursday.
Having made a slow start, Hurkacz was on course to level the match at two sets apiece when he dived for a volley at the net in the fourth set tiebreak to go 8-7 up, but landed badly and stayed on the turf to receive treatment on his right knee.
Hurkacz limped on after a lengthy medical timeout before producing another desperate dive shortly after, but his movement was severely hampered.
He threw in the towel at 7-6(2) 6-4 2-6 6-6 having gone down 9-8 in the tiebreak.
"It's very tough to win a match like this against a friend," said Fils in his on-court interview.
"We were playing super good in the fourth set. We had some great points and he was jumping everywhere. I'm really sorry for him and I hope he will recover very quickly.
"Me, I'm focused on the next round."
The big-serving Pole, who beat Roger Federer to reach the 2021 semi-finals and took a set off seven-times champion Novak Djokovic in the last 16 last year, had primed himself for more major damage after a run to the Halle final last month.
Hurkacz showed flashes of his best form after a lacklustre effort in the first two sets but could not see off the 20-year-old Fils on a sunny afternoon, joining sixth seed Andrey Rublev and eighth seed Casper Ruud in making a premature exit.
Fils became the youngest Frenchman to reach the Wimbledon third round since 2005, when both Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils did so as teenagers but his celebration was understandably muted.
Fils next faces Russian Roman Safiullin in his 10th tour-level match on grass.
"It's only my second year on grass. Okay, I'm playing better than last year, but I still have so much to improve," Fils said.
"Sometimes my movement, I don't know how to move on it. I don't know if I'm too powerful. I'm always slipping. I'm in the third round and I'll try my best to be in the second week."
Fils's 37-year-old compatriot Monfils joined him in advancing after beating three-times Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka 7-6(5) 6-4 7-6(3) in a match that began on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar, editing by Ed Osmond)
