Australian Open: Hip flexor injury: Nadal has to pause for three weeks

Rafael Nadal suffered an injury to the right hip flexor in his quarter-finals at the Australian Open on Tuesday and is expected to have to pause for three weeks. This was announced by the management of the Spanish world number one after an investigation at a hospital in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Nadal (31) had given up his encounter with the Croatian Marin Cilic at a score of 0:2 in the fifth set with severe pain and later complained about the conditions on what he considered to be far too hard surfaces. Nevertheless, he is expected to play as planned at the hard court tournaments in Acapulco (from 26. February), Indian Wells (from 8. March) and Miami (from 21. March) in March.