Rafael Nadal to withdraw from Wimbledon due to injury

An injured Rafa Nadal has pulled out of his Wimbledon semi-final match against Australia’s Nick Kyrgios giving the Australian a walkover into Sunday’s men’s final against Novak Djokovic or Cameron Norrie. The Spaniard called an unscheduled press conference for 7:20pm on Thursday evening, in which he confirmed his withdrawal after failing to recover from the abdominal tear he suffered in his quarter-final victory over American Taylor Fritz.

“Unfortunately, I am here because I have to pull out from the tournament,” said a disconsolate Nadal. “Everybody saw yesterday I had been suffering with pain in the abdominal. I know something was not okay there. That is confirmed. I have a tear in the muscle of the abdominal.”

Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, took a time out in his quarter final win over Fritz but completed the match to make it through to the last four despite urging from members in his team to stop playing and concede.

He was due to practice at Wimbledon at 12.30pm on Thursday but failed to turn up at the scheduled time. He later arrived at the grounds and trained for 45 minutes.

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It is the first time in the history of the Wimbledon tournament that a player has had to withdraw before a semi-final and the first time at Wimbledon that a player has been given a walkover into the final.

“People I know how much effort I put to be here. It’s my decision and I have to live with it. The communication is too late. I was thinking during the whole day, the decision to make,” said Nadal.

“I think it doesn’t make sense to go. Even if I did many times in my career to keep going. Tough circumstances. It is obvious if I keep going, the injury will be worse and worse. I feel very sad to say that.”

Fritz cannot be reinstated into the draw as he was knocked out of the tournament and that cannot be reversed, while Nadal was bidding to become the first person since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all four Grand Slams in the same calendar year. He already had won the Australian Open and the French Open.

“I believe I cannot win two matches under these circumstances. I cannot serve. It is not only I cannot serve at the right speed. I cannot do the normal movement to serve,” he said. “I don’t want to go out there and not be competitive to be at this level to play to achieve my goal with a big chance to make the things much worse.”

“As I always said, 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, three months outside of the competition.”

Norrie’s best finish in a Grand Slam until now was third round. The 26-year-old Briton faces defending champion Djokovic in the other semi-final for a final meeting with Kyrgios on Sunday.