Madrid [Spain], May 18 : The 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from this year's French Open, he announced on Thursday at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar.
The 14-time champion will not play in the season's second major for the first time since his tournament debut in 2005. Roland Garros will be without Nadal for the first time since 2004.
In a press conference, he stated that he will also miss the upcoming months on tour as he continues to recover from injury. After fighting a hip injury over the past four months, Nadal stated that he would be unable to compete.
"I was even working as much as possible every single day for the last four months. It has been very difficult months because we were not able to find the solution to the problem that I had in Australia. Today I'm still in a position that I am not able to feel myself ready to compete at the standards that I need to be [at] to play a Roland Garros. I am not the guy that is going to be at Roland Garros and just try to be there and put myself in a position that I don't like to be [in]," Nadal said at the press conference.
"Since after the pandemic, my body was not able to hold the practices and to hold the daily work in a good way. So I was not able to enjoy the practices and the competition because [there were] too many problems, too many times having to stop for physical issues and too many days of going here practising but with with too much pain," Nadal said.
"So after I said that I need to stop. I need to stop for a while. So my decision is to stop. I don't know when I'm going to be able to come back to the practice court, but I'm going to stop for a while. Maybe two months, maybe one month and a half, maybe three months, maybe four months," the 36-year-old added.
"I don't know, I am not the guy who likes to predict a lot the future, so I'm just following my my personal feelings and just following what I really believe is the right thing to do for my body and for my personal happiness now," the 22-time Grand Slam champion said.
The 36-year-old has not competed since injuring his iliopsoas muscle in his left leg at the Australian Open in January. Nadal and his team anticipated a six to eight-week rehabilitation period, but the lefty has yet to return to action.
Nadal has a 112-3 record in 18 career appearances at Roland Garros, in addition to his record 14 trophies. His 112 match wins and 97.4% win rate are both records, as is his flawless 14-0 record in finals.
In last year's French Open, Nadal defeated Casper Ruud in a three-set final match to win a record-breaking 22nd Grand Slam singles title a mark Novak Djokovic has since equalled.
When Nadal won the trophy in Paris last year at the age of 36 and suffering from persistent foot discomfort, he became the tournament's oldest men's champion.
Last season, Nadal overcame a severe foot injury to win the Australian Open and Roland Garros. However, due to injuries, the Spaniard has only competed in five events since.
Nadal is widely regarded as one of the best players in history, having won 22 Grand Slam titles in a renowned career spanning nearly two decades at the highest level. Aside from a record amount of Grand Slam titles in men's singles, Nadal has also won Olympic gold in singles in 2008 and doubles gold with Marc Lopez in 2016.
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