Wimbledon: Rafael Nadal cancels semi-final against Nick Kyrgios injured!
Rafael Nadal has canceled his Wimbledon semifinal match against Nick Kyrgios due to injury. The Australian is thus without a fight in the final.
by Florian Goosmann from Wimbledon
last edit: Jul 07, 2022, 08:29 pm
Nothing will happen with the dream semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios: Because Nadal cannot compete, the problems in the abdominal muscle area are too big. Nadal announced this on Thursday evening at a specially convened press conference.
He's been thinking all day, but there's no point. "If I kept playing, the injury would only get worse," said Nadal.
"I made my decision because I don't think I could win two more games under these conditions," he said, looking forward to the game against Kyrgios and a possible final against Novak Djokovic. Not only can he not open fast enough, the whole movement is a problem.
A few weeks ago he was critical of the continuation of his career because of his foot - the treatment had an impact, which was important. "The most important thing for me is to be happy." He could not continue playing and was therefore out of action for two or three months. "I'm very sad. It was a tough decision."
Nadal already with a tear in the abdominal muscles
After his victory against Taylor Fritz, Nadal had already sounded anything but euphoric, and Nadal did not want to guarantee that he would go to the semifinals. The Spanish daily newspaper Marca had already published at noon that he was suffering from a 7mm tear in his abdominal muscles.
Novak Djokovic also had a similar injury at his Australian Open 2021, allegedly there was even a tear of 25 millimeters at the end (Djokovic played and won the tournament). At the time, Nadal also recalled his problems at the US Open 2009 when he started the tournament with a tear of 6 millimeters, after his semi-final defeat against Juan Martin del Potro it was 26 millimeters. "Not a wise decision" said Nadal in retrospect when he started.
Rafael Nadal halfway to Grand Slam
On Thursday afternoon, Nadal trained loosely for around 40 minutes in Aorangi Park, but only served with the handbrake on. Because this was where the main problem for Nadal seemed to lie, with the stretching: After a little caution in the second round against Fritz, he played from the baseline apparently without restrictions, but he had reduced the service speed from round two.
Nadal has to bury the chance of the "real" Grand Slam", victory in all majors in one year. With victories at the Australian Open and French Open, he has come half the way. The whole distance is Rod in the men's last Laver left in 1969, Steffi Graf in the women's in 1988.
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