Wimbledon – ‘Very sad’ Rafael Nadal explains decision to withdraw before semi-final with Nick Kyrgios

Rafael Nadal has given his reaction after he was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon ahead of his semi-final clash with Nick Kyrgios due to his abdominal tear.

“As you can imagine, I am here because I have to pull out from the tournament,” Nadal said in the hastily-arranged press conference. “As everybody saw yesterday, I have been suffering with pain in my abdomen.

“It wasn’t okay then, and now it’s confirmed. I have a tear in the abdominal muscle. The communication is too late. I was thinking the whole day about the decision to make, but I think it doesn’t make sense [to continue]. Very tough circumstances; it’s obvious that if I keep going, the injury will worsen. I’m very sad to say that.

“I made my decision because I believe that I cannot win two matches under these circumstances. I can’t serve at the right speed; I can’t do normal movements. I can’t imagine myself winning two matches like this, and for respect for myself in a way, I don’t want to go out there and not be competitive enough to play at the level I need to play at to achieve my goal.

“There would have been a big chance of making things worse, and to be honest, a couple of weeks ago, I was in a difficult place with my foot injury, and now things are better in that case.

“For me, the most important thing is happiness; more than any title, even if everybody knows how much effort I put in to be here. I can’t risk that match and stay two, three months out of competition because that would be a tough thing for me.

“I never thought about the Calendar Slam. I thought about my diary and happiness. Australia wasn’t an issue; I didn’t have many problems during the tournament. I came back off a long period of time injured, and Roland-Garros was very demanding, mentally and physically.

“Things were going better after that, but the fact that I was here shows how important this tournament is for me and how much I wanted to play here. I did all the things in the best way possible to give myself a chance here and I am in the semi-finals, playing well the last couple of days. Even if that makes me feel a little bit worse, I feel that the same level that I was playing at I would have had a chance.

“I found a way to finish the match, which is something that I’m proud of. I had some abdominal issues, things were more or less under control, but yesterday was the worst day and it’s obvious that after the match the very small thing I had days ago increased to a bigger thing. [I should be out] for about three or four weeks – that’s the norm with these kinds of injuries.”

“Yesterday, as I said, I wanted to finish the match. I finished with a victory, but then I needed to do all the things that I had to do. The test says that I have what I have. There is always a choice, but in this particular case, it is not like the foot that I know that the injury is there and the injury will not get worse. In this particular case, it’s obvious that if I keep going, the injury is going to be increasing,”

The legendary Spaniard had been on course to win a third successive Grand Slam this season after his incredible triumphs at the Australian Open and French Open. As a result, Kyrgios has received a walkover into the final.

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