Spain’s Rafael Nadal, crowned 14 times with the “Roland Garros” tennis title, announced his withdrawal from the 2023 edition due to his lack of recovery from injury, to miss the major tournament for the first time since his coronation in 2005.
Nadal struggled to recover from a hip injury he suffered on January 18 in the second round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament, to be out of action since then (he lost to American Mackenzie McDonald in three sets).
The 36-year-old said in a press conference on Thursday: “The injury that I suffered in Australia did not develop as we had hoped, so I will not be able to play in Roland Garros .. I did not make this decision, but my body.”
“Next year will probably be my last in my career,” he said, sitting on a chair at his Rafa Nadal academy in Mallorca. It’s the best thing for my body and my personal happiness.”
“We were not able to find a solution to the problem I faced in Australia. I don’t feel ready to compete at a high level at Roland Garros. I will not go there,” he said, holding 22 major championships, a record he shares with Serbian Novak Djokovic.
Since his first coronation in “Roland Garros” in 2005, two days after he turned nineteen, Nadal has not lost sight of the tournament he loves in his heart and where he built his legend.
He won 112 wins at Roland Garros and only knew three losses in 2009, 2015 and 2021, in addition to having to withdraw during the 2016 edition due to a fracture in his left wrist.
Nadal won his last title in “Roland Garros” last year with his left foot numb to contain the chronic pain he has been suffering from since he was eighteen (Muller-Weiss syndrome).
