Staff Reporter
SPANISH tennis superstar Rafael Nadal has been forced to pull out of the Montecarlo Masters 1000 tournament, as he continues to face problems making his comeback from injury.
His uncle, Toni Nadal, who has served as Rafa’s coach for a large part of his career, has revealed exactly what the problem was ahead of the 2024 edition of the tournament in Monaco.
“He has still not recovered,” was Toni’s verdict on Nadal’s physical state.
“Above all when it comes to serving, because he doesn’t have any other problems with anything else when he is training,” the tennis coach and director of the Rafa Nadal Academy explained in comments reported by daily 20 minutos.
The uncle of the 37-year-old player, who has won 22 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, added that he hoped that his nephew would be able to take part in this year’s tournaments in Barcelona and Madrid.
“You either go at 100% or it’s better not to take part,” he said, adding that Nadal would need to “play one prior tournament so that he can have a good Roland Garros,” in reference to the French Open.
This year has already seen Nadal miss the Australian Open so that he could get more treatment to his hip. It was a hip injury that saw him miss nearly a year of competition.
At the beginning of March, he lost to fellow countryman Carlos Alcaraz at a much-anticipated exhibition match in Las Vegas that was organised and broadcast by streaming service Netflix.
Read more:
- Carlos Alcaraz defeats Rafael Nadal in highly-anticipated Netflix Slam in Las Vegas
- Rafael Nadal is branded ‘sexist’ after saying female tennis players should not automatically earn the same as men
- Spain’s tennis hero Rafa Nadal will miss Australian Open after a new injury to his hip is detected
