Nishikori forced to throw in towel

 

Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori pulled out of Wimbledon in agony on Monday midway through his last 16 match against Marin Cilic, overcome by the pain from his rib injury.

Nishikori looked completely out of sorts on Court Two and consulted the trainer and doctor before finally throwing in the towel at 6-1, 5-1 down in the fourth round contest.
The rib problem also forced him out of the Halle grass-court warm-up tournament ahead of Wimbledon.
“It’s the same injury that I had in the first match in Halle. It’s not been recovering well these two weeks,” Nishikori said.
“After the third round, it got worse. I was hoping to get better, but it was too much pain. So I couldn’t really compete.
“I was thinking about it in the second set,” he said of his withdrawal.
“Even before the match, I knew it was not going to be easy for me to play 100 percent. Also Marin was playing great on the court. Every point I played, it got worse. I didn’t want to, but I guess I had to retire.”
Croatian ninth seed Cilic now faces seven-time champion Roger Federer in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
The struggling Nishikori found himself 5-0 down within 10 minutes, having won just two points. He managed just two winners in the 16-minute set.
In the breaks of play, 26-year-old Nishikori looked forlorn, with his head down, staring at the ground.
He had his head in his hands after serving a double fault to go 4-1 down in the second set, after which his coaching staff — including former French Open champion Michael Chang — pleaded with him to call it quits.
Nishikori called for the trainer and the doctor and was given some pills.
“I knew it was not going to get better. I asked him to get some tape or whatever to get better. But they said no. I knew it was going to be tough,” Japan’s greatest male tennis star said.
After one more game he shook hands with his opponent. Nishikori also withdrew from last year’s Wimbledon in the second round with a left calf injury.
“It was actually a great, great tournament for me. With the pain, I fought through these three rounds,”