Tennis great Rafael Nadal has been forced to pull out of his Indian Wells Masters semi final against Roger Federer due to a right knee injury suffered in his quarterfinal against Russian Karen Kachanov.
The two, who have 37 Grand Slam wins between them, were due to meet for the first time since October 2017 in the 39th meeting of their intense rivalry, but the Spaniard has been forced to pull out and Swiss great Federer will progress to the final by default.
"It's tough for me to accept all these things that I'm going through in my career," the 32-year-old said, BBC Sport reported. "My goal is to be healthy as many weeks as possible to keep playing and at the highest level possible."
"Sometimes I feel sad because I'm in a disadvantage to all my opponents."
Nadal also pulled out of the Masters 1000 event in Miami due to the injury. Federer will now play the winner of the tournament's other semi-final between Austria's Dominic Thiem and Canadian Milos Raonic.
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