Spanish tennis star, Rafael Nadal had announced his retirement while trailing in the fifth set of his Australian Open quarterfinal match against Marin Cilic.
Top-ranked Nadal fended off five break points in the last game before Cilic broke his serve. Then the 16-time major winner went to shake hands with the umpire and his opponent and angrily hurled his headband into his equipment bag.
No. 6-seeded Cilic advanced to his first semifinal in Australia since 2010 with a score of 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 2-0, retired.
Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, will next play No. 49-ranked Kyle Edmund, who beat No. 3-rankedGrigor Dimitrov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time.
Nadal limped into a news conference about a half-hour later, still wincing when he stepped up onto a platform. He said he felt muscle pain in his upper right leg in the third set but played through it. In the fourth set, chasing a drop shot, he felt the pain get worse "but didn't realize how bad."
"Tough moments -- not [for] the first time here," he said. "I'm a positive person, but today is an opportunity lost to be in a semifinal for a Grand Slam and fight for an important title for me.
"It's really tough to accept."
No comments:
Post a Comment