Rafael Nadal’s ambitions of completing a calendar grand slam were dashed when he was forced to withdraw from his Wimbledon semifinal match against Nick Kyrgios due to abdominal pain he suffered during his quarterfinal victory over Taylor Fritz.
Nadal had won the first two grand slams of the year for the first time in his career, and he entered the semi-final with a 19-match winning streak in major tournaments. However, he was forced to concede defeat in his fight for fitness after suffering an abdominal injury early in his quarterfinal match against Fritz.
According to the Spanish publication Marca, the tear was 7 millimeters. “I am unable to serve. Not only can I not serve at the proper speed, but I also cannot perform the typical movement required to serve,” Nadal explained.
After receiving scans on Thursday morning, Nadal returned to Aorangi Park in the afternoon for a delayed training session. Nadal worked on his groundstrokes, but only tentatively on his serve, and he attempted to modify his motion to accommodate his injury. On the court, he and his teammates had a somber chat afterward.
Nadal did not accept that he would not be playing until hours later, well after Friday’s schedule had been published.
“The communication is too late because I had already spent the entire day contemplating the decision,” he stated. “But I don’t think it makes sense to go. Even though I have attempted numerous times throughout my career to continue despite extremely difficult circumstances, I believe it is apparent that if I continue, my injury will continue to worsen.
Nadal is the men’s grand slam record holder with 22 major victories, but injuries have haunted him every step of the way despite his immense success. Nadal has now withdrawn from 13 grand slam tournaments during his career. This year alone, after winning his first 20 matches of the season, Nadal’s clay season was disrupted by a stress fracture in one of his ribs, and then he struggled with a degenerative foot issue during the French Open, which raised questions about his appearance at Wimbledon.
After all of his efforts to rehabilitate for Wimbledon and the improvements he made with his foot, a new injury prompted him to withdraw.
“I did all possible to give myself a chance in this situation. I’m in the semifinals, so I’ve been playing exceptionally well over the past several days,” he added. “Yesterday, especially towards the beginning of the game, you played at a very high level. Even yet, it makes me feel a little worse because I believed I had a shot if I continued to play at my previous level.
Despite the anguish of his early withdrawal, Nadal felt optimistic about the future. According to him, the injury will last three to four weeks, but he should be able to return to the courts and continue training within a week without serving. As the tour transitions to the North American hard-court season, he does not anticipate that his schedule will be altered.
“As I’ve always said, happiness is more important to me than any title, even if everyone knows how hard I worked to get here,” he stated. “However, I cannot risk that match and be out of competition for two to three months, as that would be difficult for me.”
