Spain's Rafael Nadal reached his eighth semifinal at the All England Club, anticipating to face off Nick Kyrgios on Friday.
Spain's Rafael Nadal returns to Taylor Fritz of the US in a men's singles quarterfinal match on day ten of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Wednesday, July 6, 2022. Wincing from abdominal pain, unable to ply his customary relentless style of tennis, Rafael Nadal worried that he might need to stop playing in the Wimbledon quarterfinals against Taylor Fritz.
He got to his 38th career major semifinal by denying what would have been a first such appearance for Fritz, a 24-year-old American who defeated Nadal in the final at Indian Wells, California, in March. That ended a 20-match winning streak for Nadal, who was bothered that day by a painful rib injury.
Nadal occasionally would watch a ball off Fritz's orange racket fly by. Nadal couldn't move the way he usually does. His trademark grunts of "Uhhhh!" were rare. He didn't generate the usual zip on his serves, which dipped from a high of 193 km/h to barely above 160 km/h. He sought to end exchanges with a quick-strike forehand or a drop shot -- sometimes with success, often not.
Asked to look ahead to facing Kyrgios, Nadal began with this ominous-sounding statement: "I hope to be ready to play."Nadal, who won Wimbledon in 2008 and 2010, leads Kyrgios 6-3 head-to-head; they are 1-all at Wimbledon. In 2014, Kyrgios, then just 19 and ranked 144th, announced himself to the world by winning; in 2019, Nadal took the rematch after Kyrgios spent the night before at a local pub into the wee hours.
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