Former World No.1 Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from Rotterdam Open, begins next week on hard-courts in the Netherlands, due to his back problems, which bothered him during the Australian summer series.
On Thursday, the 20-time Grand Slam champion announced that he has to forfeit from the 48th edition of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, which runs from 1-7 March.
Spaniard wrote several posts on his Twitter account. “It is with great sadness that I have to forfeit from Rotterdam. As most of the fans know, I suffered some back problems in Australia that started in Adelaide and continued during Melbourne,” the 13-time Roland Garros title winner noted.
The 34-years-old from Manacor also emphasised, “We found a temporary solution that allowed me to play without pain in the second week of the tournament(Australian Open)”, where he lost his quarterfinal match against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the five-setter.
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“Doctor and Team Members Advised Me Not To Play This Upcoming Week”, says Rafael Nadal
If Nadal would play this year, It would have been his first appearance in Rotterdam since 2009, when he lost to Andy Murray in the championship match.
Rafa continued, “Once I got back to Spain, I visited my doctor, and together with my team, they’ve advised me not to play this upcoming week. I was really looking forward to coming back to Rotterdam and The Netherlands since it’s been a while since I played there.”
After World No.2 Nadal withdrew, the World No.3 Daniil Medvedev would have been the No.1 seed in Rotterdam. If the 25-years-old from Russia reached the final of the ATP 500 event, he would replace Nadal at No.2 place in the ranking table, according to the ATP Tour.
In conclusion, Nadal went on to say that “this was the perfect year for my calendar, and I hope to come back and play there soon. All the best to the tournament, always a top-class event.”
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