The 22-time Grand Slam champion tweeted about his withdrawals, which were anticipated but continue to raise doubts about when he will be able to play again.
Follow Us
Due to the left hip flexor injury that has kept him out of action since the Australian Open, Rafael Nadal withdrew from the upcoming hard-court tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami on Tuesday. The 22-time Grand Slam champion tweeted about his withdrawals, which were anticipated but continue to raise doubts about when he will be able to play again. “Took my time off, started rehab, gym and physiotherapy as instructed by the doctors,” Nadal wrote as part of a thread on Twitter that included videos showing him in the gym. “Getting ready to come back … in the best conditions.”
At the BNP Paribas Open in California, where the men start their main-draw matches on March 8, he has won three times and advanced to the 2022 final. The Miami Open, a Masters 1000 event that begins ATP action on March 22 and where Nadal last competed in 2017, will come after that. He has never won the championship there and has placed second five times, including two defeats to rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the finals. Men’s tennis moves to European red clay after Miami, leading up to the French Open in late May.
14 of Nadal’s major championships have been won at Roland Garros, including the one he captured last year despite having persistent pain in his left foot. He later advanced to the Wimbledon semifinals but was unable to compete in that match at the All England Club due to an abdominal injury. The 36-year-old Spaniard later suffered a hip flexor injury at Melbourne Park in January while losing to American Mackenzie McDonald in the second round.
The severity of the injury was determined by an MRI the following day. The typical recovery period lasts between six and eight weeks, according to Nadal and his manager at the time. Since losing in the fourth round of the U.S. Open in September, Nadal has dropped to No. 8 in the ATP rankings after losing seven of his last nine matches. He will lose ground the longer he is out, in part because he won’t be able to defend the points he gained at Indian Wells last year by making the final.
The current No. 1 — and the player who shares the men’s Grand Slam title record with Nadal — Novak Djokovic, who is currently prohibited from entering the United States as a foreign national who has not received the COVID-19 vaccination, might also not be included in the Indian Wells and Miami brackets. Djokovic revealed last week that he has requested special permission from American authorities in order to travel to the country and compete in Indian Wells and Miami. According to the Transportation Security Administration, the requirement that all foreign air travellers possess a current, complete immunisation record will be in effect at least through mid-April.
