It was all going well for Hubert Hurkacz in the initial stages of his fourth-round clash against Jan-Lennard Struff at Wimbledon. He had clinched the first two sets and appeared to be cruising towards the victory. But it would all come crashing down for him as the match progressed. After narrowly losing the third set, Hurkacz seemed to pick up an injury at 5-5 in the fourth. It was here that the match would completely turn on its head.

Hurkacz left the court in the middle of the game to receive treatment. But he didn’t look the same after coming back and lost two games in a row as Struff equalized the match at two sets each. The Pole would then make a bizarre request to the officials. Turns out that he wanted to go off the court to change his underwear and complained about it being too dark.

“I need to change clothes. No, I need to change the underwear. I cannot… I need to change the – And it’s too dark,” he was heard saying.

But all of his requests landed on deaf ears, and he was left with no choice but to continue playing. Hurkacz clearly wasn’t in great condition during the fifth set and decided to call it quits after six games. As a result, Struff won the match 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, 4-2. The 36-year-old German has already had quite a remarkable run at the Grand Slam so far, with three out of his four clashes getting settled in five sets. He had even caused a major upset by defeating Daniil Medvedev 7-6, 7-6, 7-5 in the third round.

On the other hand, Hurkacz appeared to be devastated because of his abrupt retirement. He was having a solid campaign of his own and had defeated players like Casper Ruud and Tommy Paul on his way to the Round of 16. But the physical setback couldn’t have come at a worse time for him. Hurkacz shared details about the injury after the match.

“We’re trying to understand what it is. It’s probably a slight muscle issue,” he said during the post-match press conference. “We’re waiting for a diagnosis and then we’ll see what we do. It was impossible to continue playing.”

Wimbledon is a tournament that hasn’t been too kind to Hurkacz, especially in the last three years. His best result at the Grand Slam had come in the 2021 edition when he had made it all the way to the semifinals. But the results have been underwhelming ever since. After a first-round exit in 2022, the Pole was knocked out by Novak Djokovic in the fourth round in 2023.

A physical setback would come to haunt Hurkacz in 2024, and this was the first time that he was forced to retire mid-match at Wimbledon.

Hubert Hurkacz was forced to pull out due to injury at Wimbledon 2024

Hurkacz had suffered a very unlucky injury at the SW19 two years ago as well. It had all happened during the second-round clash against Arthur Fils, where the Pole had lost the opening two sets 6-7, 4-6, respectively. But he had got himself back into contention by winning the third set 6-2, and the fourth was set to go into a tiebreaker after being level at 6-6.

However, disaster struck for Hurkacz during the fourth set. It was here that he dived to hit a drop shot and felt a knee crack as he stood up. He collapsed back on the grass and appeared to be in a lot of pain.

It was pretty clear that he couldn’t continue playing and thus had to heartbreakingly withdraw from the encounter. It was later revealed that he had torn his meniscus on the right knee.

The injury would end up having quite a significant impact on Hurkacz’s career. He had to undergo arthroscopic surgery to heal it fully. The injury saw Hurkacz miss out on the 2024 Paris Olympics, and he would also drop out of the top 100 because of his long absence from the tour.