Queen’s suffers massive blow as defending champion and top stars pull out | Tennis | Sport
Defending champion Tommy Paul is among several big names who have been forced to pull out of next week’s ATP 500 at the Queen’s Club at the last minute. Paul had been carrying leg and abdominal injuries during his recent run to the quarter-final at the French Open and has now withdrawn from the HSBC Championships due to the latter.
Lorenzo Musetti, the world No. 6 who lost to Paul in last year’s final, has also pulled out of Queen’s with a leg muscle injury. The Italian retired from his Roland Garros semi-final match against Carlos Alcaraz last week. And two-time former champion Matteo Berrettini will not be playing due to an ab problem.
It comes after Nick Kyrgios, who was set to return to Queen’s for the first time since 2019, announced he would be skipping the entire grass season due to an injury setback. World No. 23 Sebastian Korda also pulled out of the draw.
Paul was set to defend his crown at the West Kensington club next week. The American went on an impressive run 12 months ago, dropping just one set to Jack Draper across five matches on his way to the title.
But, after reaching a career-high ranking of No. 8 this week, Paul has officially removed himself from the Queen’s entry list. The 28-year-old made it no secret that he was playing through injuries at the recent French Open.
After beating Marton Fucsovics from two sets and 5-3 down in round two, Paul said: “I’ve been dealing with a bunch of things. But just something in my lower ab I’ve been dealing with. I mean, for most of the match, I mean, I was feeling it.”
Paul made it all the way to the last eight but visibly struggled and had his right thigh strapped up during his 6-0 6-1 6-4 defeat to Alcaraz and said it quickly became apparent that he “wasn’t moving amazing”.
Musetti’s French Open campaign also ended in a match against Alcaraz. The Italian pushed took the first set and pushed Alcaraz to a tiebreak in the second but he quickly fell away and retired with the No. 2 seed leading 4-6 7-6(3) 6-0 2-0.
Last year’s runner-up at Queen’s later explained: “I felt at the beginning of the third when I was serving, I started losing a little bit of strength on the left leg behind, and definitely was going worse and worse, so I decided to stop.
“I think it was, you know, the right decision to make, even if it was not what I wanted. Tomorrow I will do exams, and I will of course see and evaluate the situation.”
Berrettini, who was crowned the Queen’s Club champion in 2021 and 2022, will also no longer be playing. The former world No. 6 has been plagued by injuries in recent years and skipped the French Open for the fourth year running.
Meanwhile, Alcaraz’s participation in the ATP 500 at Queen’s remains in doubt. The world No. 2 successfully defended his French Open crown over the weekend then jetted to Ibiza to celebrate.
His coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, later confirmed that they would do some tests and make a final decision on whether to play Queen’s when he returned.
