This time, it is in the abdominals that Rafael Nadal has pain, but he gritted his teeth on Wednesday and qualified for the semi-finals of Wimbledon where he will find the volcanic Nick Kyrgios who “found the opening” towards the last square. “I hate giving up,” he explained.
“I thought several times that I would not finish the match, but the public, with the energy that they sent me, allowed me to go to the end”, he added. Nadal also had to find “a way to serve a little differently” as the pain made his usual gesture impossible to perform.
During the second set, his father and his sister made him signs to convince him to give up. “They were telling me to give up. But it’s hard to give up in the middle of a match. It’s hard, even though I’ve been thinking about it for a while. But on the other hand, I have already given up in my career. It’s something I hate to do. So I kept trying to play. »
Will Nadal be able to play in the semi-finals? ” I do not know. I will do new exams tomorrow (Thursday). Obviously I’m not the kind of player who has never been injured. I used to have physical issues and I used to contain my pain and play with those issues. It’s been a few days that I have these pains, but today it was much worse, I had much more pain and it handicapped me much more. But I managed to win the match and let’s see how it will be tomorrow. We can’t do much. The doctor came, he gave me anti-inflammatories and painkillers. The physio tried to relax the muscle a bit. But it is difficult. We can’t cure what I have like this. But as I said, it is not easy to leave the tournament, to leave Wimbledon, even if the pain is great. I just wanted to finish, regardless of the outcome. I obviously prefer to win. So I fought. And I’m proud of my mindset and how I managed to be competitive in those circumstances. »
