(New York) Rafael Nadal announced Wednesday that he will not play the US Open at the end of August and that the next tournament on his schedule is the Laver Cup, an exhibition that will take place in Berlin from September 20 to 24.
Published at 5:12 p.m. Updated at 5:46 p.m.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to be 100% this time” (in New York), Nadal said on X, without giving any indication on whether or not he will continue his career after the Laver Cup, while the question of his retirement has been raised for months.
The Laver Cup is an event created in 2017 at the initiative of Roger Federer. It is there that the Swiss played the last match of his career, a doubles with Rafael Nadal, in 2022.
The 38-year-old Spaniard has just played in the Olympic Games in Paris, where he lost clearly in the second round against the future Olympic champion Novak Djokovic, then in the quarter-finals of the doubles, partnering Carlos Alcaraz, against the American duo Ram-Krajicek.
Hampered by a thigh problem, he had been uncertain until the eve of the tournament and did not play at full physical strength.
After his elimination in singles, he declared that he would make “the necessary decisions after the Olympics” “based above all on (his) desires and (his) feelings”.
Injured at the Australian Open in January 2023, the winner of 22 Grand Slam tournaments, including four US Opens, was away from the courts for almost a year and has never regained his former level since due to a succession of physical problems and withdrawals. He is 159th in the latest world ranking.
After his elimination in the first round of Roland-Garros in June by the German Alexander Zverev, he had however mentioned a possible last appearance in 2025 in his favorite tournament (14 victories).
“Obviously if I feel that I am no longer competitive and that I do not have the capacity to become so again, I will make the decision to stop,” he assured at the time.
