After falling last Friday in the Roland Garros semi-final against Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal returned to Manacor with the goal of catching the air and calming his mind to decide his course in the coming months. After a demanding run on the mud, in which he has competed in five tournaments in the past two months, the Spaniard wanted to check his body’s response and finally decided to stop dying because he puts health first and doesn’t want to rush; In this way, the 35-year-old champion from the 20 majors will not compete at Wimbledon, the next big event on the ATP calendar (June 28-July 11), nor in the Tokyo Olympics (July 24-30).
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“It is a decision that is never easy to make, and after listening to my body and speaking to my team, I understand that it is the right decision, with the goal of extending my sporting career and continuing to do what makes me happy; compete at the highest level and continue to struggle for professional and personal challenges at the highest level in a competitive manner ,” said the Manacor director through a statement distributed by the Communications Division.
The great Briton’s resignation, he explains, was due to the narrowness of the calendar. This year, the pandemic has forced the start of Roland Garros to be postponed by a week, so the move to London is much more rapid and his body is not responding at this point as it did when he was younger. “The fact that there are only two weeks left hasn’t helped my body recover from the always tough clay season. It’s been two months of great effort. [22 partidos] And he follows Nadal, who will miss the tournament for the fourth time after not attending in 2004, 2009 or 2016.
A two-time champion in 2008 and 2010, he will continue this version of the home and his record in the Grand Slam will continue at 20. Meanwhile, Roger Federer, who shares the historic record, and top seed Novak Djokovic, will be showing off during the English turf show – he earned on Sunday He finished 19th and was crowned five times at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club.
Second break of the season
Before leaving Bois de Boulogne, Mallorcans left his Wimbledon in the air – “I need to breathe, it’s different than when I was 25, 26 or 27, now I’m 35,” he explained then – and she hinted Previously I’m not sure about traveling to Japan in July. “In an ordinary world, I would never think of missing a game, of course, but in those circumstances I don’t know. Now I don’t prepare my calendar six months in advance,” he said on May 11, at the gates of play in Rome. “Now I don’t prepare my calendar six months in advance,” he said five days later: On a romantic level, I’d rather wait for another year, in abundance, with an audience and as we all know them.”
In this way, Nadal considers that the best thing is to book himself and start thinking about the summer tour on the ground, with the US Open in New York (August 30 to September 12) as the main goal and thinking about playing in Montreal first (9-15 August) or Cincinnati (August 16-22). “At this point in my athletic career, an important part is preventing any kind of excesses in my body that could prevent me from continuing to fight for titles in the medium and long term. I want to send a special greeting to all my fans in the world, for those in the UK and Japan.”
“The Olympics have meant a lot to my career [oro individual en Pekín 2008 y en dobles en Río 2016, junto a Marc López] And they have always been a priority, finding the environment that every athlete wants to feel at least once in their career. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience them intensely on three occasions and also to be my standard-bearer,” concludes Nadal, who has played 27 games this season and also quit several appointments (Rotterdam, Acapulco, Miami, Dubai) before. His landing in the mud. In this tape, The Spaniard went 56 days without a competition after suffering a cervix problem at the start of his cycle.
Maximum capacity in the US Open
Nadal’s return will occur in about two months and the previous work will focus on the US Open, where he will find a new scenario.
The Great American Organization announced Thursday that it will allow maximum capacity at the Billie Jean King complex after New York state authorities this week lifted nearly all restrictions against COVID-19, due to strong progress in immunization.
Thus, it will be the first major tournament without restrictions since the outbreak of the pandemic. Last year there was not a single spectator in the stands and in the 2019 edition more than 700,000 spectators were registered. This season, the Australian Open has approved 50% of attendance and Roland Garros is up to 5,000 people in the past four days.
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