The 22-time major champion said he felt soreness in the area last week, but the injury worsened during Wednesday’s quarterfinal match with Taylor Fritz, especially while serving. “Unfortunately, as you can imagine if I’m here, I have to withdraw from the tournament,” Nadal told a press room on Thursday. “As everyone saw yesterday, I was suffering with abdominal pains. I know something wasn’t right there, as I said yesterday.” Kyrgios, who reached the semifinals at a Grand Slam for the first time with his win over Cristian Garin on Wednesday, will now face either top seed Novak Djokovic or No. 9 Cameron Norrie in Sunday’s championship match.
1 Related Nadal practiced for about 45 minutes on Thursday, spending most of that time hitting forehands and backhands, and although he practiced some serves, it was at a much reduced speed. Spanish newspaper Marca reported Thursday that Nadal has a 7mm tear in one of his abdominal muscles but that he intended to play. Ultimately he said he didn’t think he could play his best with the injury. “I made my decision because I believe I cannot win two matches under these conditions,” Nadal said. “I cannot serve. [It’s] it’s not just that I can’t serve at the right speed, it’s that I can’t make the normal move to serve. “I have to say, imagine myself winning two games and for self-respect in a way, I don’t want to go out there, not be competitive enough to play at the level that I need to play to achieve the my goal and with a great chance of making things much worse, no?’ Nadal wore tape on part of his abdomen and required treatment, including painkillers, during his five-set win over Fritz. Nadal, 36, was trying to win Wimbledon for the third time and first since 2010. He was playing in the tournament for the first time since 2019. Having won the Australian Open and French Open earlier this year, Nadal was fighting to continue his quest for a Calendar Grand Slam and claim his 23rd major title at Wimbledon, which would have tied him with Serena Williams for one. in the Open Age. Nadal said he had no regrets about ending the match on Wednesday, despite the wishes of his father and sister, who were sitting in his players’ box, urging him to retire. “[It] it was the right decision because I finished the race,” he said and added: “I won the race. I did the things I felt in each moment. I’m not the type of player and the type of person that when you make decisions, I’m going to look back and say, I shouldn’t be doing this or I should be doing something else… “[On] on the other hand, I didn’t want to retire, walk out on the court in the middle of a quarter-final match. Even if, as I said yesterday, the possibility of retirement lingers in my mind for a long time after the first five, six games, I find a way to finish the match. Something I’m proud of. Then you confirm that you have an injury and then you make the decision thinking about your health and your future.” Nadal said he expects to take three to four weeks to recover from the injury. This report used information from ESPN’s Simon Cambers.
