“Nadal to Miss French Open and Rest of the Season Due to Persistent Hip Flexor Pain”

The clay court tournament in Paris has to cope with two well-known cancellations. Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios will not take part in the French Open. Nadal will even miss the rest of the season.

For the first time since his debut in 2005, Spain’s tennis star Rafael Nadal will miss the French Open. The 22-time Grand Slam winner announced this on Thursday at a press conference in his tennis academy in Mallorca. Nadal had won his favorite tournament on clay in Paris 14 times last year despite chronic foot pain.

Focusing on 2024

The 36-year-old, who has had constant injuries in recent years and was sometimes only able to play fit, has not announced the end of his career. However, he let the media know that he would not play a match again this year. Rather, he wants to prepare himself completely for the coming year, in which he then wants to end his career. His goals: The second Olympic gold and his 15th title at the French Open.

Nadal has been plagued by hip pain since his second round exit at the Australian Open in January. In Melbourne he suffered a tear in his hip flexor. That’s why he had to cancel the tournaments in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, ​​Madrid and Rome. The former world number one has only played four games this season. He lost seven of his last nine matches. “We are in a difficult situation,” Nadal said a few days ago.

Nadal, currently 14th in the world rankings, will lose the 2000 points for last year’s win, meaning he will slip to 120th in the new world rankings after the end of the French Open (June 12). This would mean that Nadal would not be in the top 100 for the first time since March 24, 2003.

Kyrgios also has to fit

Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios is not missing the French Open because of his knee problems, but apparently because of the consequences of a robbery in early May. “The knee operation went well,” his adviser told the Australian newspaper The Canberra Times: “But during the ordeal of the robbery he injured his foot quite badly. The wound isn’t healing properly.”

In early May, Kyrgios helped police in the Australian capital of Canberra catch a man who, according to court documents, threatened the tennis player’s mother at gunpoint and then stole his Tesla. Kyrgios called the police and used an app on his smartphone to help locate the car. How exactly he injured himself is unclear.