Nadal injury puts Nick Kyrgios in men’s final
Tennis legend Rafael Nadal cruelly bowed to what had seemed the inevitable at Wimbledon and withdrew from his semi-final because of an abdominal tear, handing Australia’s Nick Kyrgios a walkover into his first grand-slam final.
After a light practice for 45 minutes on site at 1.30pm, the 22-times grand-slam singles champion from Spain spent the rest of the afternoon in discussions with his team.
Shortly before 7pm, he informed All England Club officials that he would not be fit enough to play on Centre Court.
This is the first time that there has been a walkover in the latter stages at Wimbledon since the 1931 championships, when the American Frank Shields pulled out of the final with a knee injury to hand the title to his compatriot Sidney Wood. Kyrgios, 27, will now have two further days of rest before Sunday’s final.
“I have to pull out from the tournament,” Nadal, 36, said. “I have a tear in the abdominal muscle. The communication is so late because I was thinking during the whole day about the decision to make.
“I think it doesn’t make sense to play. Even if I tried lots of times during my career to keep going under very tough circumstances, in this one I think it’s obvious that if I keep going, the injury is going to be worse and worse. I feel very sad to say that.”
After being in clear discomfort during his five-set quarter-final win against the American Taylor Fritz, Nadal had started Thursday by receiving a scan of his abdominal area, which revealed a 7mm tear.
He had been scheduled to hit on the outside courts in full view of spectators at 12.30pm but sparked concerns when he did not arrive on site until 12.50pm.
Thirty-five minutes later, Nadal was driven in a courtesy car to a secluded court at the back end of the Aorangi Park practice facility.
He was able to strike forehands and backhands with no issue but crucially could not hit his serve at full power, despite adjusting his motion and toss to place less pressure on his abdominal area.
He had less spin as a result and the ball consistently landed long of the service box.
Afterwards, Nadal sat by the side of the court and could be seen in deep conversation with his coaches and agents.
He was then driven back to the locker room at 2.30pm before finally making a decision on his participation four-and-a-half hours later.
“I made my decision because I believe that I can’t win two matches under these circumstances,” Nadal said. “I can’t serve. It is not only that I can’t serve at the right speed, it’s that I can’t do the normal movement to serve.
“I don’t want to go out there and not be competitive enough to play at the level that I need to play to achieve my goal, and with a big chance to make the injury much worse.
“For me the most important thing is happiness more than any title, even if everybody knows how much effort I put to be here. But I can’t risk that match and stay two to three months outside of the competition because that’s going to be a tough thing for me. If that happens, it happens, but not because I was not doing the things the proper way. That’s my decision and I have to live with that.”
