Will Rafael Nadal be able to appear on the court this Friday to find Nick Kyrgios in the semi-finals of Wimbledon? The Spaniard suffers from an abdominal tear of seven millimeters in length, but wishes, in any case, all the same to play this meeting, reports the Spanish daily Marca on Thursday.
The Spaniard, 4th in the world and double winner (2008 and 2010) of the London tournament, took exams on Thursday morning after his difficult success the day before in the quarter-finals against the American Taylor Fritz 3-6, 7-5, 3 -6, 7-5, 7-6 (10/4).
“I don’t know,” he replied after the match when journalists asked him if he would be able to face Kyrgios (40th). The Madrid daily adds that the player has not practiced serving for a week, which is not surprising given the visual impression left on his face-off during his match against Fritz.
Marca recalls that this is not the first time that Nadal has had to play under these conditions: in 2009, at the US Open, he played the tournament with a tear two centimeters long and lost against the ‘Argentinian Juan Martin del Potro in the semi-finals. This injury also echoes that contracted by Novak Djokovic during the Australian Open 2021: in Melbourne, the Serb suffered a 17-millimetre tear in an oblique muscle, but managed to go all the way to the bout, notably beating Daniil Medvedev in the final.