(Reuters) – Rafa Nadal’s hopes of completing a rare calendar year Grand Slam ended yesterday when the Spaniard pulled out of his highly-anticipated Wimbledon semi-final showdown against Australian Nick Kyrgios with an abdominal strain.
Nadal won the Australian and French Opens back-to-back this year for the first time in his career and was bidding to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to complete the calendar-year slam.
“Unfortunately, I have to pull out from the tournament,” the dejected Spaniard told reporters at a hastily arranged news conference, less than 24 hours before his semi-final.
“As everybody saw yesterday (in the quarter-final), I have been suffering with abdominal pain. I knew something was not okay there. Yeah, that’s confirmed. I have a tear in the muscle in the abdomen.
“I was thinking during the whole day about the decision to make.”
With the Spaniard’s withdrawal, unseeded 27-year-old Kyrgios became the first Australian to reach the men’s singles final at the All England Club since Mark Philippoussis in 2003.
The Australian has shown his good, bad and ugly sides during the tournament and been fined a total of $14,000 for two offences — spitting towards a fan after his first-round win and swearing in a fiery third-round clash with Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Kyrgios will take on either top seed Novak Djokovic, who is bidding for a fourth straight and seventh overall title on the manicured lawns of Wimbledon, or local hope Cameron Norrie in Sunday’s final. Their semi-final is scheduled for today.
Nadal’s father and sister urged him to retire mid-match against American Taylor Fritz during Wednesday’s match on Centre Court but Nadal ignored the pleas from his box and pulled off a remarkable win in four hours and 20 minutes.
He was back yesterday at the All England Club, hitting forehands and backhands on the practice courts at Aorangi Park hoping to be able to turn up against Kyrgios.
The winner of a men’s record 22 Grand Slam titles said it did not make sense to continue as it was evident he could not have been competitive.
“Even if I tried a lot of times during my career to keep going under very tough circumstances, in that one I think it’s obvious that if I keep going the injury is going to be worse and worse,” he said. “I feel very sad to say that.
“I made my decision because I believe that I can’t win two matches under these circumstances. I can’t serve. It’s not only that I can’t serve at the right speed, it’s that I can’t do the normal movement to serve.”