Rafael Nadal Announces Withdrawal From French Open 2023

Madrid, May 18: 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal on Thursday (May 18) announced his withdrawal from the upcoming French Open 2023, which is scheduled to be held from May 28 to June 11.

The 14-time champion at the Roland Garros Nadal made the announcement at a press conference in the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar. The veteran also said he will not play in the season's second major for the first time since his tournament debut in 2005.

Roland Garros will be without Nadal for the first time since 2004. He is also set to miss the upcoming months on tour as he continues to recover from injury. After fighting a hip injury over the past four months, Nadal stated that he would be unable to compete.

"I was even working as much as possible every single day for the last four months. It has been very difficult months because we were not able to find the solution to the problem that I had in Australia," Nadal said at the press conference.

"Today I'm still in a position that I am not able to feel myself ready to compete at the standards that I need to be [at] to play a Roland Garros. I am not the guy that is going to be at Roland Garros and just try to be there and put myself in a position that I don't like to be [in]."

The Spaniard also added the struggles he has had since the pandemic and how he had played through pain in most competitions. He is also unsure when he will return to action.

"Since after the pandemic, my body was not able to hold the practices and to hold the daily work in a good way. So I was not able to enjoy the practices and the competition because [there were] too many problems.

"Too many times having to stop for physical issues and too many days of going here practising but with with too much pain. So after I said that I need to stop. I need to stop for a while. So my decision is to stop," Nadal said.

"I don't know when I'm going to be able to come back to the practice court, but I'm going to stop for a while. Maybe two months, maybe one month and a half, maybe three months, maybe four months," the 36-year-old added.

"I don't know, I am not the guy who likes to predict a lot the future, so I'm just following my my personal feelings and just following what I really believe is the right thing to do for my body and for my personal happiness now," the 22-time Grand Slam champion said.