Sad news for tennis fans. The long-awaited semi-final of the Wimbledon tournament between Nick Kyrgios and Rafael Nadal will not take place. The latter announced Thursday evening at a press conference that he would not play the meeting scheduled for Friday due to an abdominal injury. “I have an abdominal tear. We talked all day about the decision to make, but it makes no sense to play if I want to continue my career, “said the Spaniard with 22 Grand Slam titles, is 36 years old.
“If I play, the injury will get worse and worse. (…) I made this decision because I can’t win two more games. Out of respect for myself, I don’t want to play without being competitive at the level I want and at the same time aggravate my injury,” he insisted. The player with 22 Grand Slam titles almost gave up in the quarter-finals on Wednesday against Taylor Fritz, but he does not regret going through with his match.
“The decision was good because I finished the match and on top of that I won. I’m not the type of person who looks back after making a decision. You learn from your mistakes, I try not to repeat them, but I didn’t want to give up and leave the court in the middle of a match,” he explained. “I had abdominal problems for a week, but I was able to control it. Yesterday it became very painful. The tiny injury I had a few days earlier had grown.”
He estimates that he won’t be cured for “3 or 4 weeks”, which shouldn’t change his tournament plans. Winner of the first two Majors of the year, the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, he suffered from an abdominal tear seven millimeters in length, the Spanish daily Marca reported on Thursday. He thus lets Kyrgios access his first Grand Slam final without playing. He will be opposed to the triple title holder Novak Djokovic or the Briton Cameron Norrie.
