The agony of Rafael Nadal’s injury-forced Wimbledon exit in an off-kilter tournament

One assumes it does, because consider the source. Rafael Nadal has withdrawn suddenly from Wimbledon, on the eve of Friday’s semi-final, citing an abdominal tear he says is so painful it stripped away his strength, his ability to serve, and any chance at winning a pair of matches and a title.

The tear is seven millimetres long, Marca reported Thursday. Barely a quarter of an inch. Maybe the width of a pea. But enough to keep the current Australian and French Open winner out of a shot at another Wimbledon — and a once-in-lifetime calendar Grand Slam

“Feel very sad to say that,” Nadal said Thursday in confirming his withdrawal.

He looked crestfallen, because he was crestfallen. Has any tennis champion given as much physically to the sport? Is there any doubt Nadal exhausted every sensible opportunity to get out there for his showdown Friday with Nick Kyrgios?

The 36-year-old Spaniard plays tennis only one way: full stop, like Larry Csonka. He’d surely be out there if he could.

When Nadal first appeared on the scene, it was assumed his muscular, swashbuckling game was too muscular and swashbuckling to be sustainable. Injuries indeed robbed him of time. Other pain, he endured. He plays with a bad left foot which clunks around in a Nike shoe like a cinder block.

But the abdominal injury was too much. Hobbling in distress, he pulled out a miracle Wednesday in the quarters against the American Taylor Fritz, winning a five-set, final-set tiebreak victory 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(4).

Nadal refused to quit against Fritz, even when his father, Sebastian, and his sister, Maria Isabel, watched him struggling and wincing and appeared to signal him to call it off.

“They told me to retire the match, yeah,” Nadal said.

“It’s something that I hate to do. So I just keep trying, and that’s it.”

Instead it became a master class in making something out of nothing. Deprived of almost all of his power, Nadal changed speeds with junkball slices and shortened points to limit Fritz’s momentum. His serve velocity dropped close to 20 miles per hour, but it seemed to have the effect of a change-up pitch, throwing off Fritz’s timing on his returns.

It was like watching a skilled pilot land an old plane with no wheels and smoke pouring out of the engines. The crowd, fully in the tank for Nadal to win, erupted when he finally sealed it.

“I mean, it’s Nadal,” said Fritz. “How can you question anybody for wanting to cheer for him?”

Now Nadal’s run is over. Now Friday is an unexpected day off for Kyrgios, who’s never made it this far in a major tournament.

The 27-year-old Australian is an electric talent who has frequently been undone by inconsistency and acts of self-sabotage, and has spoken freely about his struggles with his mental health. At this tournament he has already been fined twice — once for spitting toward a spectator, and another for cursing at an umpire — as news broke of a court order in Australia to appear on a charge of assaulting an ex-girlfriend.

The semi with Nadal was to be the biggest stage of Kyrgios’s tumultuous career. It was also a kind of reprise — Kyrgios audaciously announced himself in pro tennis by toppling top-seeded Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014, when Kyrgios was 19 years old.

Nadal’s departure is a bummer for Wimbledon’s final weekend, but the whole tournament has felt slightly askew, with its prohibited Russian stars (including World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev), early fizzles from women’s World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and national treasure Emma Raducanu, a first-round exit from Serena Williams, and a nonplaying cameo from injury-rehabbing Roger Federer, who arrived in a sharp suit for the 100th anniversary celebration for the hallowed Centre Court.

All that, and Boris Johnson is resigning over at No. 10.

Saturday women’s final is compelling: a match of first-timers Elena Rybakina and Ons Jabeur, both bidding to become a breakthrough major winner for the countries they represent, Kazakhstan and Tunisia.

Meanwhile, the second men’s semi on Friday features six-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, who faces 26-year old Brit Cameron Norrie. Norrie is the first U.K. player in the men’s semis since Andy Murray, and he may have a rowdy home crowd on his side.

Djokovic is not unfamiliar with hostile audiences, and tends to thrive in them. But he’s not the full Nole, either — he needed to roar back from a two-set deficit to beat Italy’s Jannik Sinner in the quarters, and he’s finding his footing in a disjointed season which began with his unvaccinated exile from the Australian Open.

Off the table is a another tantalising Djokovic-Nadal final, close-to-automatic classics which carry the charge of vintage Ali-Fraziers.

Perhaps this was something Nadal considered: maybe he could outdo Kyrgios, but did he have the fuel to go five hours Sunday with a fellow all-timer?

One could see this moment as another signal that the Big Three era of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer is drawing to its inevitable close.

But to watch Nadal speak Thursday was to see a legend who still feels very good about his game — he’d been rolling nicely at Wimbledon, and let’s not forget he still hasn’t lost a match at a major this year.

Nadal said this made him feel worse, because he knew he had a shot.

“I did all the things the best way possible to give myself a chance here,” he said.

It’s an underappreciated wonder of this historic men’s tennis era, that these three champions became so successful and rich and yet remain so motivated to win.

One needed only to look at Federer courtside in a necktie to know he would give almost anything to chuck the suit and get back on the grass, racket in hand. He’s trying to do exactly that, at age 40.

Now Rafael Nadal will watch the last weekend at Wimbledon, too.

That’s sports. But it hurts like absolute hell.

– Wall Street Journal