Rafael Nadal’s time in Wimbledon has come to an end. The tennis player was forced to pull out of the semi-final Thursday due to an abdominal strain he had been suffering from since the quarter-final. “I have to pull out of the tournament,” the 36-year-old confirmed in a press conference.
© GettyImagesNadal was visibly in pain during his quarter-final game against Taylor Fritz. While he defeated Fritz, he walked away with a 7mm abdominal tear halfway through. “As everybody saw yesterday I have been suffering with the pain in the abdominal, I know something was not okay there as yesterday I said and yeah, that’s confirmed I have a tear in the muscle, in the abdominal,” he said.
The 36-year-old holder of a men’s record 22 Grand Slam titles was set to take on Nick Kyrgios in the second men’s semi-final Friday. With Nadal’s withdrawal, the Australian is officially walking into Sunday’s final where he will face either Novak Djokovic or Cameron Norrie. Kyrgios wished Nadal a good recovery on Instagram writing, “different players, different personalities. @rafaelnadal I hope your recovery goes well and we all hope to see you healthy soon. Till next time…”
On Thursday morning, there were reports that Nadal was still going to go ahead with the semi-final. “The communication is too late because even like that I was thinking the whole day about the decision to make, but I think it doesn’t make sense to go, even if I tried a lot in my career to keep going. Very tough circumstances in that one I think it’s obvious if I keep going the injury is gonna get worse and worse,” he explained.
As noted by Sky News, Nadal was hoping to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to complete the calendar-year slam after winning the Australian and French Opens this year.
You can watch daily highlights from Wimbledon at 10 pm on Eurosport 2 and discovery+ from June 27, as well as the two singles finals, live on July 9 and 10.
