MY ACCOUNT
Rafael Nadal says prolonging his career is more important than any trophy after withdrawing from Wimbledon ahead of his semi-final against Nick Kyrgios due to injury.
The second seed played though the pain barrier in beating Taylor Fritz in a five-set thriller in Wednesday’s quarter-final, but he later admitted he was unsure if a troublesome abdominal issue would clear up in time for Friday’s semi-final.
Nadal appeared on the practice courts on Thursday, despite tests reportedly revealing he had a seven-millimetre abdominal tear, though it ultimately proved in vain as he announced at a news conference later in the day that his match with Kyrgios would not go ahead.
While disappointed at being denied the chance of winning a first calendar Grand Slam, having already won the Australian Open and French Open this year, the 22-time major winner feels he had no choice.
“Unfortunately, as you can imagine, I am here because I have to pull out from the tournament,” he said. “As everyone saw yesterday, I have been suffering with a pain in the abdominal [area] and something was not okay there.
“That is confirmed, I have a tear in the muscle and the communication is too late. I was thinking the whole day, I was thinking about the decision to make, but I think it doesn’t make sense to go, even if I try through my career to keep going.
“It is very tough circumstances but it is obvious if I keep going the injury will be worse and worse. I never thought about the calendar slam, I thought about my diary and my happiness.
“I don’t want to go out there and not be competitive enough to play at my best. The most important thing to me is happiness over a title.”
Nadal showed incredible mental and physical resilience to dig deep and see off first-time grand slam quarter-finalist Fritz 3-6 7-5 3-6 7-5 7-6 (10-4), despite being a set down when calling for a medical time-out on Centre Court.
“I make this decision because I don’t believe I can win two matches under the circumstances. It is not only I can’t serve at the right speed, it is I can’t do the normal movement to serve,” Nadal added of his decision to pull out.
“After that, to imagine myself winning two matches and for respect for myself in some way, I don’t want to go out there and not be competitive enough to play at the level I need to play to achieve my goals.”
Kyrgios will now receive a bye through to a first grand slam final, where either Cameron Norrie or Novak Djokovic await on Sunday.
As for Nadal, he is hopeful of returning to action within “two-to-three weeks”, meaning he will have time to get back up to speed in time for the US Open, which begins on August 29.
“My goal is to go to the Montreal Masters [on August 5],” Nadal said. “Injuries are part of my career. I saw myself with options to win the title, but you have to accept things as they come.”
