Sports

Nadal out of Wimbledon with abdominal injury

PTI

Rafael Nadal announced on 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.

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 on 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."         AP