Nadal battled through an abdominal injury to defeat Taylor Fritz in five sets yesterday before admitting he didn’t know whether he’d recover in time to face Nick Kyrgios in Friday’s semi-final. He was then due to practise on Wimbledon’s Court 10 at 12.30pm on Thursday but failed to show up, with Marca reporting a scan showed Nadal he had a 7mm tear in the abdomen but would be playing tomorrow.
He then took to Court 10 at Aorangi Park around an hour after he was due to hit on one of the tournament courts, right in the back corner of the players’ practice area away from the vision of any fans and the media. Nadal’s surprise private session caused the bottom half of Aorangi Park to be effectively shut down following his impromptu arrival, with staff under strict orders to let no one downstairs to the area of his court unless they were a player or part of a player’s team.
But the Spaniard’s agent, Benito Perez-Barbadillo, informed reporters that Nadal and his team weren’t trying to hide anything and said they weren’t behind the shutdown of the lower level of Aorangi Park. Whether intentional or not, the 22-time Grand Slam champion also took the side of the court that couldn’t be seen from the balconies above, with only his hitting partner and coach Marc Lopez visible from afar.
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