Rafa Nadal announces that he will not participate in Wimbledon or the Olympic Games
Rafael Nadal announced this Thursday its decision to not participate in either the Wimbledon tournament or the Tokyo Olympics to "prevent any kind of excesses" in your body.
These excesses could prevent him from "continuing to fight in the medium and long term for the titles," said the Spanish player, world number three.
"Hello everyone. I want to inform you that I have decided not to participate in the next edition of Wimbledon to be played from June 28 to July 11. Nor will I play the Olympic Games finally scheduled for July 24-30 ", Nadal pointed out.
"It is a decision that is never easy to make", adds in a statement on their social networks. "After listening to my body and talking to my team, I understand that it is the right decision in order to extend my sports career and continue doing what makes me happy: compete at the highest level and continue fighting."
Nadal says the only two weeks separating Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year - the French tournament was delayed due to the pandemic - has prevented him from recovering "from the always demanding clay court season."
"It has been two months of great effort and the decision I make is focused on the medium and long term", highlights.
"In these moments of my career as an athlete, an important part is the prevention of any type of excesses in my body that could prevent further fighting in the medium and long term for the titles," says the player, who in the recent tournament of Roland Garros fell in the semifinals to Serbian Novak Djokovic, leader of the world ranking.
The Mallorcan player underlines that the Olympic Games "have meant a lot" in his career "they were always a priority as an athlete".
"I found the environment that every athlete wants to feel at least once and personally I was lucky enough to experience them intensely on three occasions and also to be the standard bearer of my country ", says Nadal, who was individual Olympic champion in Beijing 2008 and in doubles in Rio 2016 together with Marc López.
Nadal is the second Spanish tennis player to resign from the Tokyo Games, a decision that Roberto Bautista announced two days ago.
Along with them, Pablo Carreño and Alejandro Davidovich were the tennis players classified by ranking. The International Federation has until July 5 to reallocate unconfirmed places.
