"They told me I need to retire the match" - Nadal confirms he was urged to quit by his family
ATP
Rafael Nadal admitted that he was told by his team to retire during his quarter-final match at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships.
After entering the quarter-final match at SW19 undefeated at Grand Slams in 2022, the Spaniard faced a big obstacle. Taylor Fritz was playing some inspired tennis, but it wasn't only about the American's qualities.
Nadal struggled with his health, so much so that his team told him to retire during the match. The 22-time major winner kept on playing, ultimately winning the match in five sets.
Nadal won the match 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) to reach the semi-final stages of the tournament. After the match, he admitted that his team told him to retire.
"They told me I need to retire the match, yeah. Well, I tried. For me was tough to retire in the middle of the match. Not easy even if I had that idea for such a long time [in the match]."
"But in the other hand, I did it a couple of times in my tennis career. Is something that I hate to do it. So I just keep trying."
Nadal was seen by a doctor during the match, and as he revealed, he received some anti-inflammatories, which helped him.
"Doctor came, give me some anti-inflammatories. The physio just tried to relax a little bit the muscle there. But it's difficult. Nothing can be fixed when you have a thing like this. I just wanted to give myself a chance."
Although he might not be very competitive in his next match due to the struggles, it didn't matter to Nadal. He wanted to leave the court standing and with a win, which he managed to do.
"Not easy to leave the tournament. Not easy to leave Wimbledon, even if the pain was hard. I wanted to finish. Doesn't matter. Well, I prefer to win, with victory or defeat. That's what I did. I fighted. Proud about the fighting spirit and the way that I managed to be competitive under those conditions."
Nadal's semi-final opponent at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships will be Nick Kyrgios. The Australian loves playing against the 14-time French Open winner, and he's certainly looking forward to this clash as well.
