Nadal still hoping to play Wimbledon semifinal despite ab tear

Rafael Nadal (ESP) suffers from a 7mm abdominal tear. Peter van den Berg-USA TODAY Sports

Rafael Nadal still hoping to play Wimbledon semifinal on Friday despite seven-millimeter abdominal tear

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated 7/7/22

Rafael Nadal outlasted Taylor Fritz in a marathon five-set thriller at the All England Club Wednesday to advance to the Wimbledon semifinals against Nick Kyrgios on Friday. Nadal's status for his next match cannot be taken for granted though, as he deals with yet another injury.

Marca reports that Nadal has a 7mm abdominal tear, but wants to play the semifinal against Nick Kyrgios. https://t.co/skknPKYm9f
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) July 7, 2022

Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated had an update on the 22-time Grand Slam winner following his practice session on Thursday.

Streaming Nadal practice...leaving court five, now posing for photos..the good news for tomorrow, he hit serves...the less good news, this was deeply abbreviated....can't imagine - having won last two sets, and last 19 matches at Majors - he won't give it a shot tomorrow.
— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) July 7, 2022

Fwiw...Nadal practice session lasted 44 minutes — (He hit with Marc Lopez for 33 minutes w/ an 11 minute break )..
— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) July 7, 2022

The abdominal tear comes on the heels of Nadal's chronic foot pain caused by his Mueller-Weiss syndrome, which almost caused the 36-year-old to miss Wimbledon altogether. This is Nadal's first Wimbledon tournament since 2019, as the 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and he sat out last year due to injury.

The Spainard's last Wimbledon run ended in the semifinals at the hands of Roger Federer. Nadal is a two-time singles champion at the All England Club, with the victories coming in 2008 and 2010.

He is halfway to a 2022 Grand Slam -- which would be his first -- after already capturing both the Australian Open and French Open earlier this year. Nadal's only calendar year in which he had three Grand Slam victories was 2010, when he captured first place at the French Open, U.S. Open and Wimbledon.

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