July 08, (THEWILL) – Due to the abdominal injury Rafa Nadal sustained in his quarter-final match against Taylor Fritz, the second seed has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled Wimbledon semi-final match against Nick Kyrgios.
THEWILL reported that his family had tried to convince him to quit the quarter-final because of the injury, but Nadal, who won the first two grand slams of the year, struggled through the pain and prevailed in a five-set encounter against the American on Wednesday.
It was revealed on Thursday that Nadal had a 7mm abdominal tear, but he still wanted to participate in the semi-final. The 36-year-old processed to cautiously practised at the Aorangi Park before abruptly announcing his withdrawal at a press conference at Wimbledon.
Nadal said: “Unfortunately as you can imagine I am here because I have to pull out from the tournament. As everyone saw yesterday I have been suffering with a pain in the abdominal and something was not OK there. That is confirmed, I have a tear in the muscle and the communication is too late.
As a result, Kygrios will become the first player in the open era to advance to his first grand slam final through walkover. On Friday, the semi-final match between Novak Djokovic and Cameron Norrie will take place on Centre Court, with Kygrios waiting to face whoever wins.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
