Wimbledon: Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from Wimbledon due to an abdominal injury and will not play Nick Kyrgios in the semi-finals.
Despite suffering from an abdominal problem, the Spaniard battled to a five-set victory over Taylor Fritz in his quarter-final and said afterwards that he would seek medical advice before deciding whether to face Kyrgios in the semi-finals on Friday.
Nadal said at a press conference: “Unfortunately as you can imagine I am here because I have to pull out from the tournament.
“As everyone saw yesterday I have been suffering from pain in the abdominal and something was not OK there. That is confirmed, I have a tear in the muscle and the communication is too late.
“I was thinking the whole day I was thinking about the decision to make but I think it doesn’t make sense to go, even if I try throughout my career to keep going. It is very tough circumstances but it is obvious if I keep going the injury will be worse and worse.”
We're sad to see it end this way, @RafaelNadal
Thank you for another year of unforgettable moments at The Championships#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/XadiEVxaWF
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 7, 2022
With a walkover, unseeded Kyrgios advances to his first Grand Slam final
The scheduled Australian opponent for Nadal will now get a walkover into his first major final.
The 36-year-old insisted he made the difficult decision due to an abdominal problem that prevented him from serving.
“I never thought about the calendar slam, I thought about my diary and my happiness,” Nadal said.
“I make the decision because I don’t believe I can win two matches under the circumstances. It is not only I can’t serve at the right speed, it is I can’t do the normal movement to serve.
“After that to imagine myself winning two matches, and for respect for myself in some way, I don’t want to go out there and not be competitive enough to play at the level I need to play to achieve my goals.”
According to Spanish media, Nadal suffered a seven-millimetre tear in his abdominal muscle and has decided not to continue.
After winning the Australian and French Opens this year, Nadal had hoped to become the first man to complete the calendar-year Grand Slam since Rod Laver in 1969.
He will be out for “three to four weeks,” with the US Open, which is scheduled for the end of August, as a goal for the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
“I had some issues in the abdominal since the week but things were more or less, I was able to control it but yesterday was the worse day,” he said.
“I did tests during the week to see how things evolved, and it was clear yesterday after the match that the very small thing I had days ago had grown to a larger thing.”
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