Tennis star Rafael Nadal is struggling with injury problems.
Image: AP
Rafael Nadal extends his tennis break indefinitely. He missed his favorite tournament, the French Open, for the first time since his debut 18 years ago. He also announces the end of his career.
Rafael Nadal will continue his tennis break indefinitely and will not participate in the French Open for the first time since his debut in 2005. The complaints from the injured hip flexor did not allow him to start at his favorite tournament in Paris, which began on Pentecost Sunday, the Spanish tennis professional told journalists on Thursday at his tennis academy in Mallorca.
He is not the type to travel to Roland Garros just to take part there, said the record winner of the most important clay court tournament. The 22-time Grand Slam tournament winner was unable to predict whether he would be out for a few more weeks or four months. His plan is that he will play his last year on the professional tour in 2024. That would give him the chance to compete twice on the Parisian clay courts: at the annual Grand Slam tournament and at the Olympic tennis competition.
120 days after his last official match at the Australian Open, the Mallorcan admitted that he had not been able to enjoy “daily training and competition” for some time due to constant injuries and pain. The most important thing for him is “my body and my personal happiness,” said Grand Slam record champion Nadal.
Last year he fought his way through in Paris and won his 14th title there with a stunned foot. After barely playing this season, Nadal has fallen out of the top ten in the world rankings for the first time in 18 years. Before long, he won’t even be in the top hundred.