Former world No.1 Rafael Nadal has revealed he took a 20-day break from playing tennis due to a foot injury shortly after his semi-final loss at the French Open.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion hasn’t played a competitive match on the Tour since June after opting to skip both Wimbledon and the Olympics in order to give his body a rest. At the time of the announcement, Nadal gave no mention of the foot issue he was experiencing. During the first half of the 2021 season, he achieved a win-loss of 23-4 and won two ATP titles.
“If I had to choose, I will never miss Wimbledon and Olympics. But I was not able to compete in these events after the clay-court season,” Nadal told reporters on Sunday.
“I had some issues in my foot, so I had to stop playing tennis for around 20 days, not touching a racket for 20 days.’
“I started slowly, practicing half an hour, then a little bit more. So I went through the whole process.”
Describing his break from the Tour as ‘the right thing to do,’ Nadal will return to competitive tennis this week at the Citi Open in Washington. He is the only top 10 player participating in the ATP 500 event and he will be making his debut in the tournament. Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alex de Minaur and Nick Kyrgios are some of the other players in this year’s draw.
Nadal will be seeking his 89th Tour title in the American capital. Although his focus isn’t on adding to his trophy collection but trying to get back into top shape.
“I don’t know how long it will take to recover everything, but the only thing I can say is I’m here just to try my best in every single moment,” he said. “I hope the last couple of days of practices keep helping me to be competitive enough for the first round.”
The hope for Nadal is that he will be back to top form in time for the US Open which he skipped last year due to travelling concerts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He will be seeking his 21st major title at the Grand Slam which he has already won on four previous occasions.
One of his biggest rivals in New York will be world No.1 Novak Djokovic who recently missed out on a medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The Serbian had a chance to achieve the Golden Slam but is still on course for a calendar slam where a player wins all four major titles within the same year. Something Nadal thinks he is more than capable of doing.
“When you win three, you can win four. He’ll be playing on hard court, his best surface, so why not?” he commented.
“There will be other guys that want to achieve the last Slam of the season but he’s probably the most favored player to achieve that, to achieve something amazing.
“I really believe he can do it without a doubt.”
Granted a bye in the first round, Nadal will start his Washington campaign against either Yoshihito Nishioka or Jack Sock.
