Two-time Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from The Championships with injury.

The No.2 seed, on course for a calendar Grand Slam, was due to face Nick Kyrgios in a blockbuster men's semi-final on Friday, but has announced his withdrawal due to an abdominal tear. The withdrawal means Kyrgios will appear in his first Grand Slam final on Sunday.

Nadal held a press conference late on Thursday evening at the All England Club, revealing it was an extremely difficult choice for the benefit of his health and happiness.

"I was thinking during the whole day about the decision to make," the 22-time Grand Slam champion said.

"I think it doesn't make sense to go on. Even if I tried a lot of times during my career to keep going under very tough circumstances, in that one I think it's obvious that if I keep going, the injury will get worse and worse. That's the thing that I can say now. I feel very sad to say that, it's a very tough one."

On Wednesday afternoon the 36-year-old defeated Taylor Fritz 10-4 in a pulsating fifth set tie-break, earning a standing ovation on Centre Court, despite thoughts of retirement lingering after the first five games.

Somehow the gladiatorial world No.4 had battled through five rounds in pain. 

"I had some issues in abdominals since a week, but more or less we were able to control it. But yesterday was the worst day. Honestly, during the week I did tests to see how things [would] evolve," continued the Spaniard.

"Yesterday in the game that I was serving 3-1 to 3-2 (first set), I think was the moment that I start to feel the things were going worse. Then serving, if I was not wrong, 4-3 the thing starts to be much worse.

"It's obvious that yesterday after the match this very small thing that I had days ago, increased to a bigger thing."

His withdrawal was a combination of not wanting to risk further damage and also knowing he couldn't match his warrior spirit on court.

"I made my decision because I believe that I can't win two matches under these circumstances. I can't serve. It's not only that I can't serve at the right speed, it's that I can't do the normal movement to serve," he explained.

"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, and with a big chance to make things much worse.

"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. 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."

The men's all-time Grand Slam leader won the Australian Open after six months on the sidelines, then triumphed at Roland-Garros while dealing with a chronic foot issue. That moved Nadal two Grand Slams clear of his 'Big Three' rivals Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

However, a possible calendar Grand Slam was not on his radar.

"I never thought about the calendar Slam. I thought about my daily happiness and my daily work. Just play for the things that I really feel like," Nadal said.

"Honestly, Australia was not an issue. I didn't have many problems during the tournament. But I came back from a long period of injury.

"Roland-Garros was very demanding, mentally especially and physically. But after that, things were going better. After how tough was Roland-Garros, just the fact that I was here shows how important is this tournament for me and how much I wanted to play here." 

Being in such ferocious form added to Nadal's frustrations at SW19.

"I am in the semi-finals, so I'm playing very well the last couple of days. Especially yesterday, at the beginning of the match, playing at a very, very high level," he added.

"Even that makes me feel a little bit worse because I felt that playing at the level that I was playing, probably I will have a chance."

Undeterred, Nadal will manage his body as he has throughout his trophy-laden but injury-blighted career, hoping to return in time for the US Open.

"It’s going to be around three, four weeks, normal thing for these kind of injuries. I hope it will allow me to do my normal calendar," said Nadal.

"In one week I [am] going to be able to play from the baseline. Not serving for a while, of course.

"In some way that's a positive thing, that I [am] going to keep being able to practise from the baseline. That helps to try to make the calendar that I want to do."

You just can't keep a champion like Nadal down for long.

We extend our sympathies to Rafa Nadal on his withdrawal from the Gentlemen's Singles semi-final. We appreciate how hard he has worked to be fit to compete, and wish him well in his recovery. We now look forward to an exciting semi-final tomorrow and finals weekend ahead, and to seeing Rafa back at Wimbledon in the future.

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