Kyrgios in Wimbledon final after Nadal pulls out

Australia’s Nick Kyrgios is through to the Wimbledon final after Rafael Nadal pulls out due to injury. Photo: Kyodo/AAP

Nick Kyrgios is through to his first grand slam final after Spaniard Rafael Nadal withdrew from Wimbledon with injury.

Kyrgios will face Serbian, Novak Djokovic Djokovic or the ninth-seeded Briton Cameron Norrie.

If Kyrgios wins, he will be the first Australian men’s singles champion at Wimbledon since Lleyton Hewitt raised the trophy 20 years ago in 2002.

Nadal, who won the Australian and French Opens, suffered an abdominal injury in his quarterfinal victory over American Taylor Fritz.

“I have to pull out of the tournament as I have been suffering with pain in abdominal,” said the 36-year-old, the holder of a men’s record 22 grand slam singles titles.

“I can’t imagine winning two matches with this [pain]. For me, the most important thing is happiness rather than the title even though everyone knows how much effort I put into this as I can’t risk being out of the sport for two to three months.”

Nadal had predicted the bad news after his four-hour-plus marathon with Fritz when the injury, for which he required a medical timeout, and affected his serve.

His hope to play Kyrgios faded when at a practice session at SW19, where Nadal he struggled with his serve on Thursday.

Kyrgios, who also struggled through shoulder discomfort in his fourth-round victory over American Brandon Nakashima, now has an extra day of rest ahead of a Sunday night final against either Djokovic or ninth-seeded Brit Cameron Norrie.

It provides Kyrgios the opportunity that he thought may have passed him by after his quarterfinal win over Cristian Garín.

After making the semi-final stage, Kyrgios said: “I just never thought I would be at the semi-final of a grand slam, I thought my ship had sailed.”

“Honestly, I didn’t go about things great earlier in my career and may have wasted that little window.”

The Greek-Malay Australian now he has the opportunity of a lifetime, at age 27, to go into a Wimbledon final fresh, instead of having to endure a likely punishing battle with the Spanish great.

Even better for Kyrgios, he has a career 2-0 record against Djokovic and in fact has never dropped a set to him, although the pair have not played since 2017.

If his opponent is Norrie, Kyrgios will have to overcome a 1-2 career record against the Brit.

For Djokovic, Nadal’s exit provides a tantalising opportunity to win grand slam singles title number 21 and get within one of the Spaniard.

Djokovic has recently faltered, the Serbian star capitulated in a teary mess during a loss to Daniil Medvedev in last year’s US Open final, before being refused the right to stay in Australia and falling to eventual champion Nadal at Roland Garros.

But at Wimbledon, a place where he has won his last 26 matches, those losses may well not matter.

neoskosmos.com