DUBAI: On Thursday (May 18), Rafael Nadal withdrew from the French Open 2023 — the second Grand Slam of the year — owing to an abdominal strain he picked up during this year’s Australian Open. The 14th-time French Open winner announced this decision during the presser on Thursday evening after several doubts over his participation for the past few months.
Nadal was expected to sit out of his favourite of the four Grand Slams after he missed the Dubai Tennis Championships and Qatar Open early this year. Alongside this, the Spaniard also didn’t participate in any of the Indian Wells and Miami Masters events. The 22-time Grand Slam winner, in the lead-up to the French Open, also skipped the Monte-Carlo Masters, the Barcelona Open, Madrid and Italian Open.
At the presser, Nadal said, “The evolution of the injury I sustained in Australia has not gone as I would have liked. I have lost goals along the way, and Roland Garros becomes impossible. At this moment, I won’t be able to be at Roland Garros. With what that tournament is for me, you can imagine how difficult it is. I have no intention of continuing to play for the next few months.”
Further, he added, “It’s probably going to be my last year on the professional tour, I can’t say this 100 percent because you never know what’s going to happen.”
At 36, Nadal is surely in the last phase of his glittering career. With a spate of injuries that have halted his progress, the superstar’s absence will surely hurt his ardent fans. They, however, will breathe a sigh of relief with him not announcing his retirement, which might still be sooner than later if he continues to struggle with injury concerns.
Nadal is a winner of 22 Grand Slam titles — joint-most along with arch-rival Novak Djokovic — and has dominated the French Open with 14 titles on the clay court.
French Open 2023 kicks off on May 22. The likes of Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz will be favourites heading into the marquee event sans Nadal.
