Nadal withdraws from Paris Masters due to knee injury

Rafael Nadal withdrew from his scheduled quarterfinal match at the Rolex Paris Masters on Friday due to a right-knee injury. Nadal was less than 100 percent during a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3 victory over Pablo Cuevas on Thursday, but he managed to survive that contest after two hours and 20 minutes.

The top-seeded Spaniard warmed up earlier on Friday before deciding that he could not play.

“Yesterday the pain during the match was too much, but I didn’t want to stop,” Nadal explained. “It’s not the thing that I love to do. I have to pull out. Of course it’s a very tough decision for me, especially here in Paris, which has been the most important city in my career without a doubt. It’s a tough situation, but I tried my best. I did one treatment yesterday night to try and play today.”

The world No. 1, who clinched that year-end ranking with his second-round Paris win over Hyeon Chung, is questionable for the upcoming World Tour Finals in London. He has one week in between Paris and London with which to recover.

“I’m not thinking about London,” Nadal added. “It’s about the longer term–to be able to continue playing tennis. It’s important to play tennis as long as possible. The knee is always bothering me a little bit, but sometimes it’s worse. I’m going to go back, check again with the doctors (like) I did after Shanghai…. Let’s see. I’m going to do my treatment. In the past it worked well.”