By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, June 7, 2022
A "very sad" Rafael Nadal withdrew from Wimbledon due to an abdominal tear sending 40th-ranked Nick Kyrgios into the his first major final at Wimbledon.
Photo credit: Rob Newell/CameraSport
An abdominal injury has forced Rafael Nadal to turn the page on the calendar Grand Slam.
A "very sad" Nadal officially withdrew from Wimbledon today due to the abdominal tear he suffered in his pulsating and painful five-set quarterfinal conquest of Taylor Fritz yesterday.
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It's a crushing blow to Wimbledon and painful end to Nadal's pursuit of history.
Closing the curtain on this Wimbledon campaign snaps Nadal's 19-match major winning streak, ends his quest for the calendar Slam and sends nemesis Nick Kyrgios into his first Grand Slam final on Sunday. Nadal was bidding to become just the third man in history to complete the calendar Grand Slam and first since Rocket Rod Laver swept his second Slam in 1969.
The second-seeded Spaniard suffered an abdominal tear about seven millimeters long. Though Nadal practiced today at Aorangi Park he looked restricted and unable to serve at full speed.
"Unfortunately I I have to pull out of the tournament. As everyone saw yesterday I have been suffering with the pain in the abdominal," Nadal told the media at Wimbledon. "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... I think it don’t make sense to go even if I tried during all the time during my career to keep going in very tough circumstances. It’s obvious if I keep going the injury is going to keep getting worse and worse and I feel very sad to say that."
The 22-time Grand Slam champion's departure sends mercurial Kyrgios into his maiden major final.
It's the second time in the Open Era a man has withdrawn prior to a Grand Slam semifinal; Richard Krajicek was forced out of the '92 Austalian Open semifinals due to a shoulder injury.
The 40th-ranked Kyrgios awaits either his nemesis, six-time champion Novak Djokovic, or British No. 1 Cameron Norrie in Sunday's final.
Bidding to reach his first Wimbledon final since 2011, Nadal instead departs at the semifinal stage for the third consecutive time. Nadal said he initially sustained the abdominal strain a week ago and it worsened during his four hour, 21-minute win over Fritz.
"I had some issues in abdominals since a week, but the things were more or less we were able to control it," Nadal said. "But yesterday was the worst day, no? Honestly during the week I did tests to see how the things evolves. It's obvious that yesterday after the match this very small thing that I had years ago -- sorry, days ago, increased to a bigger thing."
Nadal overcome a bout with COVID-19, a chronic foot injury and a two-set deficit to defeat Daniil Medvedev and capture his 21st Grand Slam championship at the Australian Open.
The Spanish superstar followed that performance crushing Casper Ruud to collect his record-extending 14th Roland Garros championship and his 22nd major crown.
Two-time Wimbledon winner Nadal was in clear pain in the quarterfinals but declined the urging of his father and sister to retire and battled on bravely fighting off Fritz in a fifth-set match tiebreaker.
Though Nadal prevailed in the quarterfinal battle it left his body too battered to face Kyrgios in what would have been their third Wimbledon clash. It's Nadal's first withdrawal from a major since he retired from the 2018 US Open semifinal with a knee injury after dropping the opening two sets to Juan Martin del Potro.
Ultimately, Nadal said fear of aggravating the injury—combined with the fact he does not believe he could win two more matches in a compromised physical condition—prompted him to pull out. It's the sixth time in his career Nadal has withdrawn from a tournament.
"I made my decision because I believe that I can’t win two matches under these circumstances," Nadal said. "I can’t serve. It’s not totally that I can’t serve at the right speed, it's that I can’t do normal movement to serve. So after seeing that imagine myself winning two matches and for respect to 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 goal with a big chance to make the things much worse.
"Being honest a couple of weeks ago I saw my career very difficult because of injury now and that’s the dangerous thing that can today stop my tennis career thinking things are going better than way without a doubt."
The 36-year-old Nadal said while withdrawing is "very sad" he places a premium on health and happiness.
"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," Nadal said. "But I can't risk that match and stay two, three months outside of the competition because that's going to be a tough thing for me.
"If that happens, happens, but not because I was not doing the things the proper way. That's my decision and I have to live with that. I can't say another thing. I am very sad and have been a very tough one."
Parting is painful, but Nadal is hopeful he can play baseline points in about a week as preparation for next month's US Open.
"It going to be around between three, four weeks, normal thing for these kind of injuries," Nadal said. "So I hope these three, four weeks will allow me to do my normal calendar. That's the calendar that I have on mind.
"I can't keep playing, not now, but in one week I going to be able to play from the baseline. Not serving for a while, of course. Playing from the baseline not going to be a big deal.
"In some way that's a positive thing, that I going to keep being able to practice from the baseline. That helps to try to make the calendar that I want to do."