Injury scare for Rafael Nadal ahead of Wimbledon
Rafael Nadal survived a day of upsets at the Aegon Championships yesterday, but it may have come at a cost with the world No. 1 now under an injury cloud ahead of Wimbledon.
The Spaniard injured his leg during his 7-6(4) 4-6 6-4 win over Denis Istomin as he was forced to call on all of his fighting spirit to book a place in the quarter-finals.
"I called the physio to check how my leg was," Nadal told reporters. "I'm still doing some tests and they are going to do more to know how I am.”
"I have to be sure that's it's nothing dangerous. If something happened this week, it's difficult to be ready [for Wimbledon] in one week.”
Despite the injury scare, the French Open champion told the media he was confident of playing in the quarter-finals at the Queen’s Club, where compatriot Feliciano Lopez awaits.
Nadal, the 2008 Wimbledon champion, missed out on the chance to defend his title last year as a result of knee tendinitis, and if yesterday’s injury proves to be serious it would be a massive blow to his chances of regaining the crown from Roger Federer at the grass-court Grand Slam.
Also at Queen’s yesterday, second seed Novak Djokovic and four-time champion Andy Roddick lost their third-round matches in a day of upsets while Andy Murray was none too happy with the decision last night to suspend his third-round match due to poor light.
The British No. 1 was locked at 4-6, 6-1, 3-3 in his match against Mardy Fish when play was suspended for the day. A frustrated Murray told umpire Cedric Mourier that, “Mardy says he doesn't want to play so we stop playing... The only reason he [Fish] wanted to stop was because it was 3-3.”
Murray had been trailing 1-3 in the third set, before levelling at 3-3. But with momentum swinging in Murray’s direction, Fish complained that it was too dark to continue.
“It’s ridiculous. I was at a tournament a week ago [the French Open] where they were playing until 9.20 at night. It’s like 8.15,” Murray said.
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