Grigor Dimitrov retires injured and in tears on verge of Wimbledon win over Jannik Sinner

Grigor Dimitrov was forced to retire from his Wimbledon fourth-round clash while two sets up over world No.1 Jannik Sinner. In a cruel twist of fate, the Bulgarian clutched his chest immediately after bombing a serve down-court and sunk to the ground before Sinner ran over to assist.

Dimitrov was well on his way to producing a massive upset. He won the first set 6-3 and the second 7-5, with Sinner battling an injury niggle of his own. Prior to their meeting, Sinner had not dropped a set at this year's Championships and he was many people's pick for the men's title.

The pair were on serve at 2-2 in the third set when Dimitrov began to struggle with what appeared to be a muscle issue in his pectoral region. He looked sheepish before attempting a first serve, and although he delivered an ace with it, he slumped to the turf straight away.

There were nervous looks in the Dimitrov box, and upon realising the severity of the situation, Sinner ran over to the other side of the court and crouched down to offer words of support while Dimitrov shouted: "My pec! My pec!"

Doctors ran onto the court to tend to the 34-year-old as BBC commentator Andrew Cotter said: "He's feeling that chest and Sinner comes quickly across. This is not good at all for Grigor Dimitrov. And this would be desperately, desperately sad if this is the end, and it looks very very serious, as if it's a proper strain. We saw it a couple of points before, we saw his body language."

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After receiving more medical attention on his chair, Dimitrov retreated behind the scenes for further assessment. But he was only gone for two minutes before re-emerging, visibly emotional, as he conceded the match to Sinner.

Dimitrov even had to use his left arm to support his right in order to reach up to the chair umpire and shake his hand. Centre Court rose to give Dimitrov a rousing ovation as the three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist bowed out in brutal circumstances.

Former world No.3 Dimitrov skipped media duties after the match, with an official Wimbledon statement reading: "Following on court treatment and after further medical advice, Grigor Dimitrov will not be undertaking any media commitments tonight."

The veteran is on a gut-wrenching run of injury woes, having been forced to retire from matches in his last five consecutive Grand Slam tournaments.

Sinner said in his on-court interview: "I don't know what to say. He has been so unlucky in the past couple of years. He is a good friend of mine and we understand each other very well off the court. Seeing him in this position... honestly, if there was a chance of him playing in the next round, he would deserve it. I hope he has a speedy recovery. I don't take this as a win at all, this is just a very unfortunate moment to witness for all of us."