Rafael Nadal withdraws from the French Open, not certain about return in 2023 season

Rafael Nadal withdraws from the French Open, not certain about return in 2023 season

Rafael Nadal is currently in Father Time (Image Credits: Martin Keep/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

Rafael Nadal announced today in a press conference that he’ll not play at French Open this year as he could not recover from the injury he sustained at Australian Open. The 14-time Roland Garros champion will be out of the 2023 season as well. He said he could not recover from injury in time. “I won’t be able to play at Roland Garros. This decision was taken by my body. I won’t be playing for the next few months,” he said.

“My motivation is to try and enjoy and say goodbye to all the tournaments that have been important to me. My ambition is to try to stop to give myself an opportunity to enjoy next year. It’s probably gonna be my last year on the tour. I can’t say 100%,” said Nadal while announcing the 2024 season likely to be his last. He also confirmed that he will be playing in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

I am not the guy who will be at Roland Garros just to play: Rafael Nadal

“I was even working as much as possible every single day for the last four months, they have been very difficult months because we were not able to find a solution to the problems I had in Australia. Today I’m still in a position where I am not able to feel ready to compete at the standards I need to be to play Roland Garros. I am not the guy who will be at Roland Garros just to play. After a couple of years that in terms of results have been positive because I was able to win a couple of grand slams and important tournaments, the real situation is I was not able to enjoy my diary work,” Nadal said.

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“Since after the pandemic, my body was not able to do the practice or diary work in a good way so I was not able to enjoy the practice and competition because of too many problems, too many times having to stop for physical conditions, and too many days off not practicing because of too much pain. I need to stop for a while. My position is to stop and I don’t know when I can come back to the practice court.

“I will stop for a while, maybe one month, maybe two months, maybe three months. I am a guy who doesn’t like to predict too much the future. I am following what I believe is the right thing to do for my body and my personal happiness. I don’t want to say one thing and do the other. It is better to hold the options open and see what is the best calendar possible (next year). I would like to play the things that are important to me and of course, the Olympic Games is an important competition and one I hope to play. Will it be my last or not? I cannot say,” Nadal said.

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