Nadal out with abdominal injury, Kyrgios into final

Rafael Nadal announced Thursday that he was withdrawing from Wimbledon after failing to recover from an abdominal injury, ending his hopes of a calendar Grand Slam.

Semi-final opponent Nick Kyrgios will receive a walkover into Sunday’s final, where he will play either top seed and six-time champion Novak Djokovic or Britain’s Cameron Norrie.

Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, was visibly in pain during in a gruelling five-set win against 11th-seeded American Taylor Fritz on Wednesday.

Spanish sports daily Marca earlier Thursday reported that Nadal had a “seven-millimetre” tear to his abdomen but still intended to play.

But the 36-year-old scheduled a press conference later in the day at the All England Club at which he confirmed he was withdrawing.

“Unfortunately as you can imagine I am here because I have to pull out from the tournament,” said the two-time Wimbledon champion.

“As everyone saw yesterday I have been suffering with a pain in the abdominal and something was not OK there. That is confirmed, I have a tear in the muscle.”

The Spaniard said he had been weighing up what decision to make all day.

But he said: “It doesn’t make sense to go (on), even if I try through my career to keep going. It is very tough circumstances but it is obvious if I keep going the injury will be worse and worse.”

The second seed was in pain during his match against Fritz, which he won 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7/6 (10/4) in four hours and 21 minutes.