Rafael Nadal, the king of clay, will announce on Thursday whether or not he will play this year for a 15th crown at Roland Garros, so the tennis world is holding its breath, fearing that the Spaniard could reveal worse news for his battered physique.
The verdict will be known from 11 am in Argentina, at a press conference organized at the academy that Nadal has in his native Mallorca.
"Whether or not he plays Roland Garros will be communicated then as will the reasons why he decides one thing or the other," according to the brief note sent to the media on Tuesday.
The 36-year-old Mallorcan (he will turn 37 on June 3) has spent weeks in a fight against the clock to try to return to the tracks on the gravel tour, the most important on the calendar for him.
Rafael Nadal and his last time in Paris, where he was champion. Photo: AP Photo/Christophe Ena.
If he announces he will not compete at Roland Garros, it would be the first time he has not attended the tournament since 2005, the year of his debut in Paris and his first title. Since then he has 112 wins and only three losses (2009, 2015 and 2021), plus a withdrawal in 2016 during the course of the test due to a left wrist injury.
Nadal has not competed since injuring the iliopsoas in his left leg during January's Australian Open, where he bowed in the second round to American Mackenzie McDonald.
Initially the injury was going to keep him away from six to eight weeks, but the recovery time has been lengthening and he has had to give up consecutively to the clay tournaments in which he has been forging his legend: Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome ... and now Paris?
Last year he arrived touched and was champion
It would not be the first time that Nadal does not arrive in the best conditions of preparation to Roland Garros. Without going any further, he won the Musketeers' Cup for the 14th time in his career in 2022 despite playing infiltrated in his left foot, where he suffers pain from his youth due to Müller-Weiss syndrome.
Then he added his 22nd Grand Slam tournament, a record in men's tennis that he now shares with Novak Djokovic, since the Serb won in Australia at the beginning of the year. It was hoped that Paris could provide a stage for the tiebreaker.
But his possible withdrawal from Roland Garros would go further and inevitably reactivate speculation about the future of his career and an eventual sporting retirement.
The Spanish press remained cautious on Thursday before the announcement, although the sports Marca said that the Mallorcan will probably communicate that he will not be in Paris, in line with the digital Relevo, which was the one who published on Wednesday that he would miss Roland Garros. The newspaper As, for its part, indicated that, regardless of his decision on Paris, Nadal does not plan to announce his retirement today.
Rafa dropped to 14th place and only played 13 games in the last nine months. Photo: Glyn KIRK / AFP.
It is expected by the word of Rafa
The answer, however, only has the tennis player himself, who when announcing his withdrawal in mid-April for the Madrid tournament, already admitted that "the evolution has not been what in principle" was expected.
"Despite having noticed an improvement these last days, there are many months without having been able to train at a high level and the readaptation process has its times, I have no choice but to accept them and continue working," he said in a video posted on his social networks.
The months of decline in this 2023 have made him fall to 14th place in the ATP. On March 20, it left the Top 10 of the ranking for the first time since April 2005.
Rafael Nadal and his joy after winning Roland Garros for the 14th time last year. Photo: POUJOULAT / AFP.
And their balance of the season is famished: a single victory and four games played.
Although injuries have been a constant throughout his more than 20 years of successful career, the problems have not given him truce for a year, starting with his foot and ending with the hip, with two muscle tears in the abdomen last summer.
In the last nine months, he has played just thirteen matches.
But even in the event that he announces he will play at Roland Garros, Nadal would await an Everest in Paris, as he has never shown up for his fetish tournament without playing a single match on clay.
Source: AFP
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