Nick Kyrgios Becomes First Aussie Male To Compete In A Wimbledon Singles Final In Nearly 20 Years
Nick Kyrgios has booked himself a spot in the Wimbledon final after Rafael Nadal shockingly pulled out.
The Spaniard was set to face the Aussie tennis star in a semi-final, however decided to withdraw from the competition.
Nadal said at a press conference: “Unfortunately, as you can imagine, if I am here, I have to pull out from the tournament.
“As everybody saw yesterday, I had been suffering with pain in the abdominal.
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"I was not OK there, as yesterday I said. That’s confirmed. I have a tear in the muscle in the abdominal.
“I was thinking during the whole day about the decision to make.
"It’s obvious that if I keep going the injury’s gonna be worse and worse.
"That’s the thing I can say now and feel very sad to say that.”
Kyrgios has now been given an express pass to the final and will play the winner of the semi-final match between Novak Djokovic and Cameron Norrie.
According to News Corp, Kyrgios has now become the first Aussie male player to make it to a Wimbledon singles final since Mark Philippoussis in 2003.
It's set to be a massive showdown and one that Rafael Nadal will likely be devastated to miss.
Nadal became the male tennis player with the most amount of Grand Slam wins earlier this year when he won the Australian Open.
It pulled him in front of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic by one title.
Now that Nadal won't be able to potentially make it to the Wimbledon final, it could grant Djokovic a chance to even the Grand Slam score.
He'll have to overcome Norrie in his semi-final match and then beat Kyrgios.
Nick was looking forward to his on-court battle with Rafael Nadal and thought it was going to be one hell of a showdown.
“We’ve had some absolute battles on that Centre Court,” he said.
“He’s won one against me and I’ve won one against him.
“Obviously, we know, two completely different personalities. I feel like we respect the hell out of each other, though.
"I feel like that would be a mouth-watering kind of encounter for everyone around the world.”
Stewart Perrie