Rafael Nadal’s plans for his comeback at the beginning of 2022 were cast into further doubt when he tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week. The positive test took place upon his return to Spain after competing at the prestigious Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.
“I wanted to announce that on my return home after playing the Abu Dhabi tournament, I have tested positive for COVID in the PCR test that has been performed on me when I arrived in Spain,” the 20-time Grand Slam champion posted on social media.
“I am having some unpleasant moments, but I hope that I will improve little by little. I am now homebound and have reported the result to those who have been in contact with me.
“As a result of the situation I have to have total flexibility with my calendar and I will analyze my options depending on my evolution. I will keep you informed of any decisions about my future tournaments.”
Nadal, who is vaccinated, was tested multiple times during the Abu Dhabi exhibition and all of those came back negative.
As for his on-court exploits at the six-man tournament, the world No. 6 earned a bye as the second seed before losing to Andy Murray 6-3, 7-5 in the semifinals. Nadal split sets with Denis Shapovalov in the third-place match and then succumbed in a super-tiebreaker. Top seed Andrey Rublev took the title, beating Shapovalov in the semis and Murray in the final.
Even prior to the positive coronavirus test, Nadal was in some doubt for the upcoming Australian summer — including the Australian Open. He has not played an official match since Washington, D.C. this past summer, having been plagued by a foot injury dating back to the French Open.
“I need to speak with my team,” the 35-year-old said following his appearance in Abu Dhabi. “Being 100 percent honest, I can’t guarantee 100 percent. The idea is to go there and try my best there in Australia. That’s the goal; that’s my idea. But we need to come back, see how the body feels after these couple of days, then that will be the time to make decisions.
“I go day by day at this moment of my career. After all the things that I went through, I need to think very well of every movement.”
get well soon, Rafa
(reusable comment)
Keep well Rafa and everyone else – (if you havent already ,get vaccinated))
Rafa’s coach, Carlos Moya, also has the virus. His description, more vivid than Rafa’s “unpleasant moments”, sounds like a good old fashioned case of the flu. Belinda Bencic also has covid but says she still plans to go to Melbourne asap. All three have been double vaccinated.
Will Nole get Vaccinated though?
Djoker will get the jab if Australia stands firm. He’s just posturing.
Craig Tiley has already said today that there will be “a few medical exemptions.” Given the very short list of legitimate medical exemptions for Covid vaccination — in Australia they are largely having had a true anaphylactic reaction to a previous vaccination, suffering from acute heart failure or having one of a handful of rare and severe clotting disorders–it is beyond unlikely that a professional tennis player has any of them. I find it pretty odd that there will be even one let alone more than one, so the whole thing is beginning to sound quite suspect.
Smells fishy all right. I’m sure there are plenty of Serb docs willing to line up and swear that Djoker will keel over if jabbed by a needle.
I think it would be best to cancel the whole thing, rather then having the players visit the latest neo-fascist society…
But, I assume money comes first…
“neo-fascist…”
ah bless..
Great to see that you think the same. Thumbs up!
Ive a gut feeling Nole is one of those exceptions 😉
More seriously I cant see him not playing with so much at stake – and as a fan want him to get that Slam
Beat me to it