“I was thinking I would not be able to finish the match” Rafael Nadal credits the centre court crowd for inspiring him to fight back against Taylor Fritz at Wimbledon
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Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal‘s quest for a calendar slam is alive by the barest of margins as he topples in form American Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinal at Wimbledon 2022. Nadal pulled off an incredible comeback despite his abdominal injury to beat Fritz in five sets 3-6,7-5,3-6,7-5,7-6(10-4) to reach his 38th career grand slam semifinal. This is Nadal’s 8th semifinal appearance at Wimbledon and also his third consecutive one after missing out in 2021 due to an injury.
Nadal didn’t look in any shape right from the start and struggled on serve and to make things worse, Fritz brought out his ‘A’ game on the centre court. He took the first set comfortably 6-3 and Nadal’s struggles worsened as he suffered severe abdominal pain in the second set as a result of which he took a medical timeout. Against all odds, Nadal managed to clinch the second set with a late break of serve 7-5 but Fritz bounced back to take the third set 6-3.
Nadal had to alter his serving motion due to the injury but using all his years of experience, he adapted to things quickly and won the fourth set 7-5 to force a decider. He then continued his clutch gameplay and won dominated the match tiebreaker to win the match.
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Rafael Nadal still unsure of his abdominal injury
In the post-match interview, Nadal spoke about the tough match and credited Fritz for battling right to the end. “It was a tough afternoon against a great player,” said Nadal in his on-court interview. “All the credit to Taylor, he has been playing great during the whole season. From my personal side, it was not an easy match at all, so I’m just very happy to be in the semi-finals.”
Talking about the injury, a concerned Nadal said that the body is fine in general about his abdominal area isn’t. He also revealed that there was a time in the match when he thought of retiring but the centre-court energy helped him.
“The body in general is fine. In the abdominal [area] it is not going well, being honest. I had to find a way to serve a little bit differently, for a lot of moments I was thinking maybe I would not be able to finish the match, but I don’t know. The court, the energy [helped me],” he said.
Nadal, who will next play Nick Kyrgios in a blockbuster semifinal clash, hopes to be ready first for the match and then also talked about how good a player he is, especially on grass. “I hope to be ready to play,” Nadal said.
“Nick is a great player on all surfaces, but especially here on grass. He’s having a great grass-court season and it’s going to be a big challenge. I need to be at 100% to keep having chances and that’s what I am going to try to do.”
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Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)