Nick Kyrgios is the first Australian to reach the men’s Wimbledon final in 19 years after Rafael Nadal was forced to withdraw from the pair’s scheduled semi-final blockbuster with an abdominal tear.
WHAT TIME IS THE FINAL AND HOW TO WATCH
On a day of high drama at the All England Club, Nadal made the crushing decision to pull out on Thursday after being unable to serve properly during a practice session.
The great Spaniard was nine wins away from becoming the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to complete a calendar-year grand slam after adding a 14th French Open crown last month to his epic Australian Open final triumph over Daniil Medvedev in January.
Nadal said he’d carried the stomach muscle injury throughout the first week of the championships before aggravating it during his five-set quarter-final comeback win over American Taylor Fritz.
“As everybody saw yesterday, I have been suffering with the pain in abdominal. I know something was not okay there, as yesterday I said,” Nadal said at a packed news conference on Thursday night.
“That’s confirmed. I have a tear in the muscle in the abdominal. The communication is too late because even like that I was thinking during the whole day about the decision to make.
“But I think it’s doesn’t make sense to go (on). Even if I tried lot of times during my career to keep going under very tough circumstances, in this one I think it’s obvious that if I keep going, the injury going to be worse and worse.
“That’s the thing that I can say now. Feel very sad to say that.”
Nick Kyrgios (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
After agonising about the call, the 22-times grand slam champion said he finally decided to pull out after accepting he had no hope of winning the Wimbledon title for a third time.
“I believe that I can’t win two matches under these circumstances,” said Nadal, who reigned at SW19 in 2008 and 2010.
“I can’t serve. Is not only that I can’t serve at the right speed, it’s that I can’t do the normal movement to serve.
“I have to say that, (I cannot) imagine myself winning two matches and, for respect to myself in some way, I don’t want to go out there, not be competitive enough to play at the level that I need to play to achieve my goal.”
The setback comes after Nadal only made it to the Wimbledon start line at the last minute after overcoming a chronic foot injury that made his latest Roland Garros triumph even more incredible.
“As I always said, for me the most important thing is happiness more than any title, even if everybody knows how much effort I put to be here,” he said.
“But I can’t risk that match and stay two, three months outside of the competition because that’s going to be a tough thing for me.”
Nadal’s withdrawal leaves Kyrgios a win away from capturing an elusive first grand slam final in what will be the 27-year-old’s maiden major final.
Tennis’s most exciting and unfulfilled talent will face either three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic or British ninth seed Cameron Norrie in Sunday’s title match.
They clash on Friday in what would have been the curtain-raiser for the Kyrgios-Nadal match that the Australian had predicted would be the “most watched match ever”.
Kyrgios has won his only two previous encounters with Djokovic, both in straight sets on hard courts in 2017 at Indian Wells and Acapulco.
But he trails Norrie 2-1 head to head, having lost twice to the Brit in Atlanta, in 2018 and last year, and beaten him at the ATP Cup in Australia in 2020.
Mark Philippoussis was the last Australian to make the men’s Wimbledon final, losing to Roger Federer in 2003 in what was the Swiss maestro’s first of 20 grand slam successes.
Lara
Guest
Soufuklaki
HR
Roar Rookie
Kyrgios should really lean into his heritage. Greek swearing is hilarious, and it would be harder to ping him for audible obscenities if hardly anybody understood him.
nics
Roar Rookie
Should we discount most of Margaret Court and Rod Laver’s Australia Open wins as many overseas stars skipped them due to having to take a long boat ride here?
HR
Roar Rookie
Nah, Rybakina is Kazakh. She changed her nationality intentionally, which is a stronger statement about wanting to play for somewhere other than Russia than not being born there in the first place. Is Dasha a Russian tennis player?
Simoc
Guest
Since zero Russian or Belarusian players are allowed to play Wimbleton this year you may need to update your knowledge.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
djokivic has had easier draw . kyriogs played top 4 seed and a red hot garin returning bullets who was ranked 17 last year . if he beats joker the second best grass courter in modern era then kyriogs has not had it as ea say as you think as the others in semi haven't played a top 8 player to get there
Adam
Roar Guru
The $3.5m AUD will probably count...
Pierro
Roar Rookie
if you beat djokovic the second best grass court player of all time as it stands and tisitipas world number and a red hot garin who was returning bullets yes it counts
Lara
Guest
We have two Jokers in the final. One is a pro , the other is a show pony. They both have a lot of tricks to upset their opponents…both yell, one spits, both challenge the umpire, one can use the English language in a really crude ways n one knows how to use toilet n injury breaks to their advantage . A fascinating final ….expect a few smashed rackets n watch out linesmen, ball boys n girls n one poor sucker in the chair.
Albo
Roar Rookie
Could some higher being be looking after our Nick this tournament ? Seems he has never been given a greater saloon passage to a major win, if he is good enough to take it ?
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Quite obviously it counts.
Nick
Roar Guru
It counts. Of course it counts To say it doesn't count means that none up to the 70's counted, because they weren't for points. Slams predated points and rankings. In your world, Rod Laver won 0 slams because none were for ranking points.
Prez
Roar Rookie
imagine if the only "major" he wins is an exhibition match. Would it even count? Also I see a Russian had made the finals of the Womens.
Marty
Roar Rookie
What a great advertisement for mens tennis it would be.
Nick
Roar Guru
Kyrgios v the antivaxxer. It's like choosing between Gigli and Honey for your Friday night date night movie
Davico
Roar Pro
I doubt that very much.
Censored Often
Roar Rookie
Ironically we didn't like the Joka a year ago for flouting our laws. Now the majority may be cheering hard for him (assuming he gets through to the final).
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Now or never.
Yawn
Guest
Genuine k nob. Hope he loses.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Can someone please do a welfare check on JOHN ALLAN?