Rafael Nadal has pulled out of his Wimbleton semifinal matchh against Australian Nick Kyrgios on Thursday after suffering an abdominal tear during his quarterfinal match against Taylor Fritz.
Nadal practiced on the court but had trouble serving at full power even with some of the adjustments he made, Wimbledon later announced his withdrawal.
Nadal was in pursuit of his third Wimbleton championship and his third Grand Slam title of the year. He already won the French Open and the Australian Open this year. He has the record for the most Grand Slam titles with 22.
Kyrgios will now participate in his first Grand Slam championship against Novak Djokovic or Cameron Norrie. He has won six singles titles over the course of his career but has never made the final in a major.
Novak Djokovic is the three-time defending champion yet to meet Britain’s Cameron Norrie who will take on the “hardest task in tennis” as he meets the defending champion Novak Djokovic in his first grand slam semi-final. Djokovic is attempting to become the fifth man in the Open Era to record a streak of at least four consecutive titles at one major.
The 2022 Wimbledon women’s final is set with Tunisian Ons Jabeur taking on Elena Rybakina from Khalistan for the Venus Rosewater Dish on Saturday.
This will be the first Wimbledon ladies’ championship match with two first-time Grand Slam finalists since 2013 when Marion Bartoli defeated Sabine Lisicki in straight sets.
Jabeur, despite being the No. 3 seed coming into the tournament, had to prove a lot en route to reaching the final. She was unable to compete in the Australian Open due to a back injury and lost her first-round match to unseeded Magda Linette at the French Open.
Rybakina didn’t fare much better in the first two Grand Slam tournaments of the season either. The Kazakh star lost to Zhang Shuai in the opening round in Melbourne. She advanced further at Roland Garros, before falling to Madison Keys in the 3rd round.
