Injured Wimbledon star Jordan Thompson has admitted he ‘feels like a p***y’ for retiring from his match against Taylor Fritz on Sunday. And he is now ’95 per cent sure’ that he will not be in any fit state to compete in the next round of the men’s doubles with Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Thompson fought through a trio of marathon matches to set up a round-of-16 date with Fritz on Court 1. It took him five sets to dispatch Vit Kopriva in the first round, another five to eliminate Benjamin Bonzi in the second, and four more to oust Luciano Darderi in the third.
The 31-year-old has been grappling with a back issue throughout the tournament, and at 6-1 3-0 down it proved too much to bear as he conceded defeat to Fritz after only 41 minutes.
As Thompson disappeared back to the locker rooms, Fritz told the crowd in his on-court interview: “Jordan’s been battling out here, playing five-setters, I respect him for coming out, he was valiant. I feel bad for him and I hope he gets better.”
But the Aussie was hard on himself during his post-match media duties, saying: “Honestly, I feel like a bit of a p***y pulling out. I wouldn’t call it valiant.”
On the sequence of events which led him to down tools against Fritz, Thompson continued: “Everything in my body is already aggravated, and I think I just made it worse. It’s just my back. And my legs are obviously very tight from compensating.
“Reaching up to get that lob, I don’t think that my back liked it very much, and neither did my legs. I had been thinking of not playing this tournament so I’m now just taking the positives. It’s my best result here, so it’s still a great tournament.”
Thompson and Herbert have made it to the round of 16 in the men’s doubles, and they are due to meet the second-seeded pairing of Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten on Monday. But Thompson is fairly sure he will not be taking part.
“It’s looking that way,” he said. “I told my partner, if by some miracle I wake up tomorrow morning and feel like I have been in the previous matches, that I’ll play, but I’d say there’s a 95 per cent chance of me not [playing].”