Wimbledon second-seed Rafael Nadal pulled out of his semi-final showdown with Australia’s Nick Kyrgios on Friday after suffering a torn abdominal muscle.
The two-time Wimbledon champion announced his decision to withdraw to a room full of reporters late Thursday. “Unfortunately, as you can imagine if I am here, I have to pull out from the tournament. As everybody saw yesterday, I have been suffering with the pain in abdominal. I know something was not okay there, as I said yesterday,” Nadal confirmed.
The 36-year-old player revealed that he had been experiencing abdominal pain for a few weeks already, however, this pain worsened during his quarterfinal clash with Taylor Fritz on Wednesday; a match that went to five sets. His pain intensified while serving.
Nadal was spotted training for 45 minutes on Thursday morning, mostly hitting forehands and backhands while occasionally practicing his serves at a reduced speed. Reportedly dealing with a 7-millimeter tear in one of his abdominal muscles, Nadal ultimately concluded that it would not be within his best interest to play with this injury.
After being handed a walkover following Nadal’s withdrawal, would-be opponent Nick Kyrgios is now due to appear in his first Wimbledon final, where he will play the winner of the semi-final matchup between number one seed Novak Djokovic and Cameron Norrie.
