Rafael Nadal announced his withdrawal from the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Thursday, still unable to get his body ready for the rigors of an ATP tournament.
“These are very difficult moments for me, sporting wise,” Nadal wrote on social media. “Unfortunately I have to tell you that I am not going to be playing in Monte Carlo. My body simply won’t allow me. Even if I am working hard & making the maximum effort every day with all the will to play and compete again at tournaments that have been very important for me, the truth is that I can’t play today.
“You have no idea how hard this is for me to not be able to play these events. The only thing I can do is to accept the situation and try to look at the immediate future keeping the excitement and will to play in order to give me a chance for things to get better.”
Nadal missed almost all of last season with a hip injury and has continued to be less than 100 percent physically due to various issues following his 2023 surgery. The 37-year-old Spaniard played the Brisbane International a few months ago and reached the quarterfinals but has not taken the court for any other official event. Nadal traveled to the United States in early March and faced Carlos Alcaraz in the Netflix Slam only to withdraw from the Indian Wells Masters.
The 11-time Monte-Carlo champion will now hope to return in either Barcelona, Madrid, or Rome. His biggest goals of course, are the French Open later this spring and the Paris Olympics–also at Roland Garros–in July.
will Nadal play again?
Doubt it. He’s not going to be physically fit to play RG after all this time.
I really hope he can play Roland Garros one more time.
If not, might as well hand the trophy to Alcaraz I guess.
Doesn’t seem like he will play seriously ever again. Keeps making excuses. I get the feeling Djoko won’t be far behind him on retirement.
Interesting to see how Sinner does on clay. Crowd support in MC will help. Other player with great chance at RG is Zverev.
MC last year was a CIRCUS
Sinner will be great on clay
I remember he did well at RG in 2020. Though (just checked), he lost in straights to Nadal .