Abdominal pain finally puts end to Nadal’s brave Wimbledon bid
RAFA Nadal finally found his breaking point. It was there for all to see in his painful quarterfinal win over Taylor Fritz as he overcame an abdominal injury to win through to a semifinal showdown with Nick Kyrgios.
But on the back courts of Wimbledon on Thursday, the 22-times grand slam champion reached deep into his well of courage and for one of the few times in his career, found he had nothing left to give.
His serve, a powerful weapon not so much for its pace but the spin, angle and precision of placement, had all but abandoned him. He tried to adjust his serve, compensate somehow for the 7mm tear in his abdomen, but couldn’t get the ball in play.
He couldn’t hit with any power. And after just 33 minutes of practice, he knew he had no chance at pulling off a semi-final miracle, let alone against the power hitting of Kyrgios.
“I made my decision because I believe that I can’t win two matches under these circumstances,” he said.
“I can’t serve. Not only that, I can’t serve at the right speed, I can’t do the normal movement to serve.
“Out of respect to myself … I don’t want to go out there and not be competitive enough to play at the level that I need to play to achieve my goal, and with a big chance of making things much worse.
“For me, the most important thing is happiness more than any title, even if everybody knows how much effort I put to be here. I can’t risk that match and staying two, three months outside of the competition. That’s my decision and I have to live with that.”
It’s incredible to think Nadal is the leading men’s grand slam titles winner for all the pain he’s suffered in his body over the year.
Before his latest setback, he had already missed 11 grand slam events stretching back to his debut in 2003. He has also now pulled out during a slam five times.
He retired twice from the 2010 and 2018 Australian Open quarter-finals (knee and leg injuries) and from the 2018 US Open semifinal (knee).
At the French Open in 2016, he played two rounds before a wrist injury forced a withdrawal. In stark contrast, career-long rival Novak Djokovic played every slam from 2005 until the 2017 US Open, which he missed with an elbow injury.
That was an unbroken run of 51 majors.