Rafael Nadal has not competed since January due to a hip injury.On Thursday, people anticipate that he will announce whether he will also be absent from the French Open, a tournament in which he holds the record for winning 14 times.
Benito Perez-Barbadillo, Nadal’s manager, stated on Wednesday that Nadal would address the media at his tennis academy in Manacor, Spain, regarding his participation in Roland Garros.
Since his debut in 2005, Nadal has never skipped the French Open after winning the title there.
Several sports outlets based in Spain said Wednesday that Nadal would not be competing at the the clay-court Grand Slam tournament in Paris, where main-draw play begins May 28. None of the reports cited a specific source.
Injury
Rafael Nadal has been out of action since he injured his left hip flexor during a second-round match at the Australian Open on Jan. 18. The following day, an MRI exam disclosed the severity of the injury. At that time, Perez-Barbadillo projected that Nadal would need up to two months for complete recovery. Initially, Nadal had aimed to return at the Monte Carlo Masters in March, a tournament played on his favored red clay. However, he was unable to participate there and subsequently withdrew from several tournaments. This has diminished the likelihood of him being fully fit in time for the French Open.
But for Nadal, missing other tournaments does not resonate the way missing the French Open would.
He is 112-3 across 18 appearances there, a level of dominance unmatched by any man or woman at any Grand Slam event in the long annals of a sport that dates to the 1800s. When Nadal won the trophy in Paris last year at age 36 while dealing with chronic foot pain, he became the oldest champion in tournament history.
Nadal is just 1-3 this season. He has dropped seven of his past nine matches overall, dating to a fourth-round loss to Frances Tiafoe in the U.S. Open’s fourth round last September.
