Trio of men’s singles players retire because of injury at the US Open

NEW YORK (AP) — Three players retired from their U.S. Open men’s singles matches on Saturday, making it seven who have bowed out of the field at the Grand Slam tournament because of injury.

Flavio Cobolli, Daniel Altmaier and Kamil Majchrzak exited mid-match in the third round a day after American Ben Shelton decided he could not keep playing because of a left shoulder injury. Sebastian Korda and Shang Juncheng called it in the first round, and fifth-seeded Jack Draper pulled out before playing his match in the second.

Hours after Shelton retired, Novak Djokovic shook off a back problem to beat Cam Norrie on Friday night and, at 38, become the oldest man to reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open since Jimmy Connors was the same age in 1991.

Cobolli said Saturday he felt something in his right arm while facing fellow Italian Lorenzo Musetti.

“I knew at the beginning of the match that I was at my limit, and I played a lot of hours in those few days and I didn’t recover like I wanted,” Cobolli said. “I think it’s going to be worse if I continued in that match.”

Cobolli added in Italian he couldn’t serve the way he way he wanted to because he was worried but didn’t think it was a serious injury.

Musetti said he thought Cobolli going through a couple of five-set matches in the first two rounds made his countryman tired and called winning that way “a bitter end.”

“I didn’t want to finish like that,” Musetti said. “I wish him to be healthy again soon.”

There were five retirements on the men’s side at Wimbledon, six plus two walkovers at the French Open and nine at the Australian Open. At the U.S. Open, there have also been two retirements on the women’s side: Nuria Parrizas-Diaz in the first round and Eva Lys in the second.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis