He was scheduled to face 22-time Grand Slam champion Nick Kyrgios in his semi-final on Friday. Kyrgios will now go directly to the final after winning the match between Novak Djokovic and Cameron Norrie.
“I have to withdraw from the tournament,” Nadal said at a press conference on Thursday. “I have a tear in the (abdominal) muscle.”
Nadal said he thought about what to do all day but decided it “didn’t make sense” to keep going.
“If I keep going, the injury will get worse,” he said, explaining how “sad” he felt about it.
Nadal hinted that part of his decision was based on the fact that he needed to win two matches, a semifinal and a final, to win the championship.
I hope I won’t be able to win both matches. “I don’t want to go out and be competitive enough to play at a level where I want to hit my goal with a big chance of making things worse.”
Nadal said he expects to recover in three to four weeks and return to competing in upcoming tournaments as expected.
The Spaniard said the injury had been bothering him for about a week, but had worsened during that time His toughest quarterfinal match against Taylor Fritz on Wednesday. Although he won 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, he was struggling with an abdominal injury at times.
CNN’s Matias Grez contributed to this report.
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