Rafael Nadal will conduct a meeting this weekend about whether or not to end his season early according his uncle and coach Toni.
The nine-time French Open champion raised doubts about the rest of his season following his straight sets loss to Viktor Troicki in the second round of the Shanghai Masters. Nadal’s loss occurred a week after he was knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Beijing Open by Grigor Dimitrov.
“I cannot say now what I’m going to do during the next month,” Nadal told reporters earlier this week. “I’m not 100 percent sure about my calendar, the things I need to do to be ready for the next year … I need to speak to my team. I need to speak to my uncle, too.”
Nadal currently lies seventh in the race to the ATP Finals where only the eight best players will play in London. The Spaniard recently admitted that he wasn’t focused on playing in the end-of-year event and preferred to end his year healthy. His comments sparked speculation that he may end his season early.
“I really don’t care much.” Said Nadal about playing in the finals. “For sure, I would like to be in London, but I have been in a lot of (ATP) finals. My real goal is to be healthy and recover the level I had before the injury happened. That’s my real goal and my motivation.”
According to Nadal’s coach, he will conduct discussions later on Friday about his plans for the rest of the year. During an interview with Cadena SER coach Toni said that his nephew is disappointed with his recent performance on the tour.
“Rafa is disappointed his tour in Asia. He has not finished playing well either Beijing or Tokyo,” Toni Nadal said.
“On Friday afternoon we will talk and make a decision on whether or not to continue this season.” He later added.
This season, Nadal has been troubled by a wrist injury that forced him to withdraw from the French Open and miss the Wimbledon Championships. It has been a somewhat testing season for the 30-year-old, but uncle Toni believes the Spaniard will continue playing for another ‘three to four years’.
So far in 2016 Nadal has won two titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona. If the world No.5 did decide to end his season early it would not be the first time. In 2014 he skipped the Paris Masters and ATP Finals in order to have surgery to treat appendicitis.
