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PARIS: World number three Rafael Nadal today (Thursday) asserted that he was withdrawing from Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics in a bid “to prolong my career”.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion, who reached the French Open semifinals last week but lost to Novak Djokovic, said that he needs to “recuperate after a long clay-court season”.
“The goal is to prolong my career and continue to do what makes me happy, that is to compete at the highest level and keep fighting for those professional and personal goals at the maximum level of competition,” Nadal said.
The 35-year-old Spaniard said the fact that there are only two weeks between Roland Garros and Wimbledon “didn’t make it easier” on his body to recover from “the always demanding” clay court season.
“Sport prevention of any kind of excess in my body is a very important factor at this stage of my career in order to try to keep fighting for the highest level of competition and titles,” Nadal added.
This year, there are only two weeks between the French Open finishing on the clay and Wimbledon starting on the grass. Usually, there are three weeks between the two majors.
The French Open was pushed back a week by Roland Garros organisers in order to start the tournament with fewer of the country’s coronavirus restrictions in place – including allowing fans in to watch.
Nadal struggled with a back injury earlier this year, playing only the Australian Open – where he lost in the quarter-finals – before the clay-court season started in mid-April.
The decision also means he will miss the delayed Olympics, which start in Tokyo on 23 July. Nadal has won two Olympic gold medals – in the singles at Beijing 2008 and the doubles at Rio 2016.
