Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori pulled out of Wimbledon in agony on Monday mid-way through his last 16 match against Marin Cilic, overcome by the pain from his rib injury. Nishikori looked completely out of sorts on Court Two and consulted the trainer and doctor before finally throwing in the towel at 6-1, 5-1 down in the fourth round contest.
The rib problem also forced him out of the Halle grass-court warm-up tournament ahead of Wimbledon.
"It's the same injury that I had in the first match in Halle. It's not been recovering well these two weeks," Nishikori told reporters.
"After the third round, it got worse. I was hoping to get better, but it was too much pain. So I couldn't really compete.
"I was thinking about it in the second set," he said of his withdrawal. "Even before the match, I knew it was not going to be easy for me to play 100 percent. Also Marin was playing great on the court. Every point I played, it got worse. I didn't want to, but I guess I had to retire."