TENNIS:Rafael Nadal's return from a long-term knee injury has been stalled further after he pulled out of next month's Australian Open.
The Spaniard had been due to make his comeback in Abu Dhabi this week but, following his withdrawal from the exhibition event due to a stomach virus, he has announced the illness will keep him out of the opening Grand Slam of 2013.
Nadal, the champion in Melbourne in 2009, feels the virus has left him “unable to get ready in time to tackle the rigours of a Grand Slam”, especially after his six-month absence.
Much better
“My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well but this virus didn’t allow me to practise this week,” said Nadal, who has also withdrawn from the Qatar Open in Doha, said. “I simply would not be doing myself justice if I went down there so unprepared.”
The 26-year-old has not competed since June when he suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Lukas Rosol, then ranked 100 in the world, in the second round of Wimbledon.
He was forced to miss his Olympic title defence, describing it as one of the saddest moments of his career, and was also ruled out of the US Open and the Davis Cup final, which Spain lost to the Czech Republic.
Nadal, who won a record seventh French Open crown in May on his favoured clay, said doctors had advised a period of rest without any sport for the next seven days.
“As my team and doctors say, the safest thing to do is to do things well and this virus has delayed my plans of playing these weeks,” he said.
Instead, Nadal is targeting a return on the clay courts of Acapulco in late February.
“I will have to wait until the Acapulco tournament to compete again although I could consider playing before,” he said.
“I always said my return will be when I am in the right condition to play, and after all this time away I’d rather not accelerate the comeback . . .”
Inappropriate
Nadal’s uncle and coach Toni added: “We consider it inappropriate to play the Australian Open since we will not have enough preparation for a . . . Grand Slam tournament. It is simply not conceivable that his first event is a best of five sets event . . .” he added. “It is true we have been quite unlucky with this but there is nothing we can do. After all this time it is better to do things well and the most professional thing to do is to start when we are ready.”
Nadal’s absence in Melbourne will be a boost to the rest of the top four – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray.
Djokovic began preparations for his Australian Open title defence by outclassing David Ferrer in the Abu Dhabi semi-finals yesterday. Playing his first match since winning the ATP World Tour Finals in November, he showed few signs of rust in a 6-0, 6-3 win over the world number five.
