Rafael Nadal has cancelled his participation in the tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai due to his knee problems. This was announced by the 17-time Grand Slam Champion on Twitter.
“We decided together with my medical and technical team not to participate in the Asia tour to regenerate the knee as we have always done,” Nadal announced.
[compnent:M]
Last Monday, the 32-year-old travelled to Barcelona for medical examinations. Nadal had previously cancelled for the Davis Cup semi-final in France, which the Spaniards lost 2-3 without him.
Nadal had given up the semi-final at the US Open against the third in the world rankings Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina) at 6:7, 2:6 due to knee problems. The Spaniard has been suffering for years from pain in both knees caused by inflammation of the patellar tendons.
This results in an interesting constellation for the ATP world ranking, especially with regard to the year-end ranking: in the “Race to London” Novak Djokovic is only 1035 points behind Nadal. The Serbian seems to have forgotten how to lose matches, except for the slip-up against Stefanos Tsitsipas in Toronto, won the titles in Wimbledon, Cincinnati and at the US Open.
Unlike Nadal, Djokovic also knows how to end a season with a success in London’s O2 Arena. The 31-year-old from Belgrade has already raised the winner’s trophy five times in the ATP final. Rafael Nadal has so far regularly failed at this hurdle.