Calling an unscheduled press conference on Thursday, Rafael Nadal confirmed his withdrawal from Wimbledon owing to a deep abdominal tear he suffered during his quarter-final victory vs Taylor Fritz. Nadal pulled out of a practice session on Thursday as the pain was too intense to continue.
Nadal opting out hands Kyrgios a straight ticket to the final. He will now face the winner of Cameron Norrie and Novak Djokovic’s semifinals.
“Unfortunately, as you can imagine, if I am here, it's because I have to pull out from the tournament,” Nadal said during a news conference at the All England Club.
Rafa was bothered by a stomach muscle for about a week, and the pain became nearly unbearable in the first set of his 4-hour, 21-minute victory via fifth-set tiebreaker against Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Nadal is 19-0 in Grand Slam action in 2022, including trophies at the Australian Open in January and the French Open in June. That put him halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
Earlier at Roland Garros, he repeatedly took injections to numb the chronic pain in his left foot and insisted he had no idea when he might reach the point of not being able to take the court.
(Inputs AP)
