Rafael Nadal will not play in Rome either

Raphael Nadal is not yet ready to compete. The Spaniard announced this Friday his withdrawal from the next Masters 1000 in Rome, which starts next week, so he will arrive Roland Garros without a previous tournament on clay. Something never seen before in his sports career.

“I regret to announce that I will not be able to be in Rome. You all know how much it hurts me to miss another one of the tournaments that marked my professional and personal career for all the love and support tifoda Italians,” Nadal said in a statement.

“Despite the fact that I have noticed an improvement in recent days, many months have passed without the possibility of training at a high level, and the adaptation process takes its time and I have no choice but to accept them and continue working. Hugs to everyone.”

Nadal has been sidelined since January, when he was injured in the second round of the tournament Australian Open. He had an iliopsoas problem in his left leg that kept him out of action for four months and forced him to miss eight tournaments: Doha, Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, ​​Madrid and Rome.

A total of 6250 points for which the Spaniard could not compete and which pushed him beyond the ‘top ten’ for the first time in 18 years. Absence in Rome will deprive him of 90 points and place him in 15th place in the ATP rankings. He has never played from such a low position at Roland Garros.

Facing the top four

This causes that if he does not appear among the top eight seeds, a member of the top four, currently made up of, can be measured Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Casper Ruud, in the round of 16.

The only way for Nadal to have a match before Paris is to claim an invitation to the tournaments in Lyon or Geneva, which are held after Rome and before Roland Garros, but that is a very slim possibility because Manacorense never competes the week before a Grand Slam.

However, this is already a very atypical situation for him, because he is used to always coming with one or more titles on the Paris clay surface, except for 2020, when Roland Garros was held in October due to the pandemic and the clay surface. the palace tour was limited to Rome.