Rafael Nadal begins to look in the mirror of Roger Federer and prepares his farewell to tennis

The decision of Rafael Nadal not play, for the first time in his career since turning pro, the tournament Roland Garros who has won fourteen times since his debut in 2005, increases the gloomy prospects of a year conditioned by the slow evolution of his injury in iliopsoas of the left leg and for a return that never ends.

The 22-year-old winner no longer thinks short-term. He will not return to competition in the next few weeks, in the next months. Until he’s ready. He will not announce tournament by tournament. We don’t have to wait. Roland Garros, reigning champion, will not play, nor will the sequel. And he warns that 2024 could be the year of his retirement.

Until now it had been tournament by tournament, since he was injured in his second match at the Australian Open, on January 18, which he lost to American Mackenzie McDonald, he has been planning returns to the track that he had to cancel one after the other.

The last, the most recent and the most painful was this one, that of Roland Garros which he made public in a press conference, given the scale of the event, the weather that has been out week after week and the uncertainty on the his physical condition.

It wasn’t a video posted on social media, as happened in the last few events that he had to give up, given that the winner of twenty-two thousand announced the news he didn’t want to give. But in front of the media, in his academy in Manacor, in a more direct way. No doubt. At a press conference.

Medical discharge, sports restart and return to competition it has no fixed date. It gives the feeling that time is eternal and the year, deserted for your interests. Empty months, still without light at the end of its tunnel. An initial forecast of six or eight weeks has been shot, for now, down to four months.

Nadal, from absence to absence

Rafael Nadal returned to training a long time ago. There are frequent public images of their preparation, of their return to activity. Every week it seems that the return of the Spaniard is imminent. But a few days before a tournament or another that includes him on his poster, he bursts in with a statement in which he formalizes a new absence.

This was the case in the more recent ones, especially in those on land, where it was calculated, on the basis of the initial deadlines, that the refund was fixed. In Montecarlo, in Barcelona, ​​in Madrid and in Rome. And now Roland Garros. Five fixed appointments, fixed in his schedule, which he leaves behind, even without contesting, together with Doha, Dubai and the American tour with the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Miami. Victims taken for granted.

His plan was to return in early May, at the start of the clay season. He didn’t give time.

currently set by ATP extension ranked 14th in the table, he has only played four games this year. Nadal has only managed one win this season. He was in the first round of the Australian Open, in Melbourne, against Briton Jack Draper. Later, on the second engagement, everything blurred. Injured, he was unable to face Mackenzie McDonald and lost in three sets. It was his last game.

2022, a year to remember

Nothing made us think about a situation like the current one just a year ago. When the manacorí, in 2022, had an impeccable start to the season. One of the best of his career, with twenty-one victories in a row that led him to win all the tournaments he has played: Melbourne, Australian Open and Acapulco. Up to Indian Wells where he played the final lost against Taylor Fritz, before having to abandon the current season due to a rib injury.

It took two months to reappear. At the Masters 1000 in Madrid. He also played for Roma and then won Roland Garros. Era his 22nd Grand Slam. Later, at Wimbledon, she again suffered from a new ailment. Nothing was the same anymore.

Roger Federer’s mirror

Nadal will turn 36 on June 3. It is customary for Spaniards to blow out candles in Paris, a tradition. He will do 37 in two weeks and will enjoy it outside Roland Garros this time.

It will be four years younger than Roger Federer. Those that the Swiss already counted when he put an end to his career in September last year, he formalized his farewell to the competition, to the circuit.

The Basel tennis player, who will turn 42 next August, has not been able to, either with the passage of time or with injuries. He spent more than a season without competing, due to ailments. Attempts to reappear and postponed referrals.

Since his participation in Wimbledon 2021 ended, he has not been able to rehabilitate his left knee, which had to be operated on. it made him think. She stared at her bye, executed it, and hung up her racket. It’s out of circulation.

Now, Nadal announces that he will not play Roland Garros and not in the coming months. You want to be competitive. And he warns that his retirement will probably be in 2024. The Balearic Islands set the Davis Cup, at the end of the year, as a logical date for his return. And maybe next year, at 38, the exercise of his season. An Olympic year, in Paris.

Roland Garros defeat will leave Nadal out of the top 100 of the ATP rankings for the first time since 2003. And it will make it difficult, in theory, for him to play tournaments, with strong rivals, against the favorites, in the early rounds. The season on grass comes behind us, with Wimbledon ahead and half a year that can be deserted, on the sidelines. Until the recovery is evident and the Balearics are as competitive as ever.