Rafael Nadal Withdraws From Wimbledon SF Match v Nick Kyrgios

The Rafael Nadal-Nick Kyrgios Wimbledon semifinal will not happen. Citing a abdominal tear made worse during his incredible win Wednesday over Taylor Fritz, Nadal withdrew today from his match tomorrow with Kyrgios.

“I have been suffering with the pain in abdominal,” Nadal said Thursday 7:30pm local time at Wimbledon. “I know something was not okay there.

“Yeah, that’s confirmed. I have a tear in the muscle in the abdominal.

“I think it’s don’t make sense to go. Even if I tried lot of times during my career to keep going under very tough circumstances, in that one I think it’s obvious that if I keep going, the injury going to be worst and worst. That’s the thing that I can say now. Feel very sad to say that.”

It’s just the second time in Nadal’s career he’s giving a walkover during a Grand Slam. The only other came at 2016 at the French Open when his wrist flared up.

Nadal was just two wins from winning a third straight Grand Slam and keeping his dream of a Calendar Slam alive. But that was two wins too many.

“I made my decision because I believe that I can’t win two matches under these circumstances,” he said. “I can’t serve. Is not only that I can’t serve at the right speed, it’s that I can’t do the normal movement to serve.

Nadal added that the issues with his ab have been ongoing.

“I had some issues in abdominals since a week, but the things were more or less we were able to control it. But yesterday was the worst day,” he said.

The good news is, he thinks the injury won’t keep him off court for long.

“It going to be around between three, four weeks, normal thing for these kind of injuries,” he added. “I hope these three, four weeks will allow me to do my normal calendar. That’s the calendar that I have on mind.”

It’s already been a tough season for Nadal on the injury front, with a rib, foot and now ab issues all in the last five months.