Following Kevin Anderson’s withdrawal due to a left hamstring injury during his fourth round French Open match against Marin Cilic of Croatia on Monday, the South African is hopeful he can make a full recovery in the next fortnight.
The Aegon Championships at the Queen’s Club in London starts on June 19, and is the perfect warmup tournament for Wimbledon the next week.
Anderson, 31, lost the first set 6-3 and was down 3-0 in the second, when the former world number-10 conceded the match after just 48 minutes of play.
“I definitely need some rest right now. I’m actually just in the process now of speaking with doctors, getting some scan results back just to get an assessment of what is going on,” said Anderson after his match.
“I mean, it’s going to be a quick turnaround. Fingers crossed I’ll be ready [for Queen’s].”
The 6’8” right-hander has struggled with a myriad of injuries over the last year. He had to retire from two matches and withdraw from nine events last season because of injuries to his groin, ankle, left knee and right shoulder. His ranking fell to number 87 on January 16.
This season, a healthy Anderson had been on the comeback path whose big-hitting game thrives on hard and grass courts has seen him excel on clay. He beat David Ferrer in Barcelona, defeated Richard Gasquet to reach the semi-finals at the Millennium Estoril Open and advanced to the last eight in Geneva two weeks ago, falling to Kei Nishikori 7-6(6) in the third.
“Again, it might be a tough decision. I don’t want to jeopardise more weeks [out injured]. I really hope I’m ready for that week. I mean, Queen’s is one of my favourite events of the year.
“So right now, I can’t really think too far ahead. I certainly hope to be ready as soon as I can.”
Anderson said the hamstring problem had persisted since the start of the tournament.
“It almost started in my first round match. I noticed it very, very lightly. I wasn’t really that concerned about it. And it just progressively worsened, sort of each match, each day in between the matches. And I was doing progressively less and less on my off days. Whereas, yesterday I was on the court for about ten minutes or so. And tried to give it my best go at it. I saw the doctors. Did a lot of treatment with my physio.
“We tried the best we could today. But it just wasn’t happening. The serve was not firing properly. I wasn’t able to use my legs properly. As the match went on, movement became increasingly difficult.
“It’s tough. It hurts to retire. I would like to just finish the match. But with the grass court season just around the corner, I have to look after my body. And I’ve been through quite a bit. So hopefully right now I’ll be able to recover rapidly.”