Rafael Nadal will not play again this year after failing to recover from the longstanding foot injury that has blighted his summer and once threatened to end his career.
Nadal was seen limping the day after his defeat to Novak Djokovic at the French Open in June, and subsequently pulled out of Wimbledon and the Olympics.
The Spaniard showed visible signs of discomfort on his recent return to action in Washington, hobbling away from a gruelling victory over Jock Sock in his opening match before he fell to South Africa’s Lloyd Harris in the next round. Nadal then withdrew from the following week’s Toronto Masters, where he would have been the defending champion, casting doubt on his prospects of making the US Open, which begins at the end of the month.
Concern intensified when Nadal announced his withdrawal from this week’s Cincinnati Masters, and the 35-year-old has now confirmed that the injury, first diagnosed in 2005, will cause the curtailment of his season.
“I have been suffering too much with my foot for the last year,” said Nadal. “I missed a lot of important events for me, like the US Open now, like Wimbledon, Olympics, and many other events that are so important and emotional for me.”
Having returned home from Toronto, where he had initially hoped to play before accepting that his injury would not allow it, Nadal sought advice from doctors and those close to him before deciding to call time on his season.
“The foot is not [in] a proper way today, and during the last year I was not able to practice and prepare myself the way that I need to be competitive at the standards that I want to be,” said Nadal, who would have been bidding for a record-breaking 21st grand slam title in New York.
“I am confident that I will recover myself 100% and I will be able to fight again for the most important things. The injury is nothing new, it is the same injury that I have had since 2005.
“In that moment, the doctors were very negative about my future career. But I was able to have a career that I never dreamed about, so I am confident that I will recover again the foot. And if the foot is better, I am confident that my tennis and my mentality will be there again soon.”
It is by no means the first time that the injury, a congenital problem first identified when Nadal was 19, has impacted his career. While the use of special insoles enabled him to play on despite the initial verdict of a specialist that his career was over, the inserts triggered a host of other physical complications, most notably with his knees and back. Painkillers have become a way of life for the Spaniard.
“A lot of times, almost always, he would have to take a painkiller because the pain would get worse and worse as matches went on,” Toni Nadal, Rafa’s uncle and former coach, revealed three years ago.
“Because of some insoles that he started using, which solved his foot problem, he started having problems in his knee, back and other parts of his body.”
“I remember in 2013, he told me… ‘Sometimes, I wish I’d win less and have less pain.’”
Nadal’s announcement follows a similar statement from Roger Federer, who revealed on Sunday that he is to undergo knee surgery for the fourth time in his career. Federer, who recently turned 40, said he would be “out of the game for many months”, but wanted to give himself “a glimmer of hope” of returning to the tour “in some shape or form.”
Nadal struck a more upbeat note. “[There] remain a couple of beautiful years, I really think,” said the world No 4. “I will be back, and I will be back the right way.”
Nadal and Federer aside, the US Open will also go ahead without Dominic Thiem, the world No 6 and defending champion, whose season is over amid ongoing problems with his wrist.
“I’m really disappointed not to be able to defend the title in New York but I haven’t recovered from the wrist injury I suffered back in June at the Mallorca Open,” said Thiem, who wore a splint for six weeks before returning to the practice court. “My recovery was going really well, but then last week I hit a ball during training and started to feel some pain again. I went straight to see the doctors. After some tests, they said that my wrist needs more time.”
In the absence of the injured trio, Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas are the headline acts at the Cincinnati Masters.
Medvedev, the top seed, defeated Olympic bronze medallist Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1, 6-1 to reach the last four and extend his winning streak to eight matches after winning the Toronto Masters last week. Next up for the Russian is his compatriot Andrey Rublev, the fourth seed, who battled to a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over Benoît Paire of France.
“I’m happy to play against [Medvedev], because it’s a nice challenge for me to see what I need to improve, because after losing to him previously, I always improve more and more,” said Rublev. “It’s going to be close, like a chess match, long rallies. I need to fight for every ball. We’ll see. It’s going to be interesting.”
Tsitsipas will face Alexander Zverev, the Olympic champion, in the last four after overcoming Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 5-7, 6-1. The Greek second seed was made to work hard for the win, however, clinching the decider with a dominant performance after missing two match points at 5-4 in the second set. ““Tennis is a psychological game and things like this happen. It’s important to just stick to your roots and what you are doing best,” said Tsitsipas at courtside. “It might not have been ideal in the second set, especially when I made so many opportunities and had such a good opportunity to close it a bit earlier. But with a lot of patience and just trying to find that opportunity in the third set, I was stepping in, I was really determined and I didn’t let go.”
Zverev eased past Norway’s Casper Ruud, who had won 15 of his previous 16 matches, 6-1, 6-3. Looking ahead to his semi-final showdown against Tsitsipas, Zverev said: “I think Stef is somebody who is in incredible form right now and he’s looking forward to playing this match as well because we’re right in front of the US Open. We should be playing our best tennis, and I think it’s going to be entertaining for all of us. When you’re in the semi-finals of a Masters, you’re playing your best tennis. I just feel like when I’m playing at my best, I can compete and beat anybody.”
In the women’s event, top seed Ashleigh Barty consigned Barbora Krejcikova, the French Open champion, to only her third defeat in 28 matches. Barty, who beat the Czech 6-2, 6-4, will face Angelique Kerber in the semi-finals after Petra Kvitova, the 11th seed, pulled out of their quarter-final with a stomach issue with the German leading 6-3, 3-3.
Karolina Pliskova reached the last four in similar fashion after Paula Badosa of Spain, who defeated third seed Aryna Sabalenka in dramatic fashion earlier in the week, retired with a shoulder injury while trailing 7-5, 2-0.
Pliskova will face Jil Teichmann next after the Swiss beat her compatriot Belinda Bencic, the Olympic champion, 6-3, 6-2. “We hugged before the match, we hugged after the match,” said Teichmann, who defeated second Naomi Osaka in the last 16. “We know that once we step on court it’s business, it’s just another player I have to deal with, and she had the same mindset. At the beginning it’s obviously a bit special, but once we’re in it, we just look at the game, not looking at the opponent.”
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