World N0. 3 Rafael Nadal has ruled himself out of the Miami Open on Tuesday because of an ongoing back issue. The hard-court tournament begins next Tuesday.
Our champ posted on Twitter:
Sad to announce that I won’t be playing in Miami, a city that I love. I need to fully recover and get ready for the clay court season in Europe. Special message to my fans in the US and in particular to the great Spanish speaking community FL who always give me a great support!💪🏻
— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) March 16, 2021
The 20-time Grand Slam champion earlier withdrew from this month’s tournament at Rotterdam, Netherlands.
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Oops! Just lost my money ☹
My money’s on RBA for the Miami title. My guess is that he’ll outfox the youngsters who are left.
Another painful loss for Tsitsipas and more soul searching.
Congratulations to Rafa’s good friend, RBA, he just beat D. Medvedev in straight sets.👏
With Medvedev out, a first-time winner will be crowned at the Miami Open.
Do you have a favorite, Margo?
Mimi, I’m rooting for Tsitsipas.
And waiting for Rafa.
He has a very good chance.
Me too, I miss Rafa……we will see him soon!😉
Both RBA and his next opponent Sinner had extended training blocks with Rafa in the last few months. It should be a compelling match.
Monte Carlo update: Thiem, Isner and Coric have withdrawn.
Can’t wait to watch them, I like both, so it’s one of those 49% vs 51% match lol. The same between Andrey and Sebi.
Looking forward to watch Rafa in less than two weeks!🤗
Sad to learn about Thiem, Pauline. I know he he wants to play the FO so hopefully he pulled out from Monte Carlo as a precaution to be at his best for the FO.
Thiem is on the entry list for N.D.’s Serbia 250 in Belgrade on the 19th which he chose over the Barcelona 500 the same week. Will be interesting to see if he is fit to play by then.
I understand that Thiem will not be playing in Barcelona either. It isn’t due to injury, but because he wants to train and focus more on the rest of the clay tournaments. Obviously RG is uppermost in his mind.
Lorna, there may be something brewing in Belgrade.
I am surprised that Thiem will not defend his Barcelona title, choosing instead to play the Belgrade Open being held at Djokovic’s tennis center.
“Talking about his son’s decision to drop the 250 points from Barcelona and stake them at the Belgrade Open, Wolfgang Thiem said, ‘Djokovic asked him to play and he accepted. Dominic is looking forward to play in front of a crowd again.’”
Djokovic’s brother is tournament director at Belgrade.
In a Sports Illustrated article, Ben Rothenberg delineated reasons why the PTPA hasn’t gone anywhere and mentioned something about “someone’s brother being a tournament director.” I had no idea what he was referring to at the time.
I wonder if player participation at Belgrade will be affected by the ATP/PTPA conflict.
Wishing Juan Martin Del Potro all the very best for a full recovery from knee surgery on Tuesday – his fourth since the awful accident at the net at Queens in 2019.
Delpo’s will and determination to get back on court and play at the Tokyo Olympics is truly admirable and I hope he gets there.
Lorna, I think he first injured/fractured his kneecap when he fell at the Shanghai Masters in 2018. Then in the 2019 Queens tournament he re-injured his knee. He’s been going through surgeries [4 as you stated] since 2018 in addition to less invasive procedures.
I wasn’t optimistic about his return but after this fourth surgery this is what his current physician had to say: “…we are confident Mr. del Potro will have a swift recovery. The surgery was carried out successfully and he is recovering very well.” This sounds very promising. Like you, I hope to see him competing again. He’s had it really rough.
Yes, Margo. Delpo has had the most terrible luck with injuries. Although he fractured his right patella in Shanghai in 2018, his first knee surgery came in 2019 after Queens.
He’s had a total of eight surgeries in his professional career :
2010 : right wrist
2014 -15 : three on left wrist
2019 – 21 : four on right knee.
[Source : tennismajors.com]
In a way, this puts things into perspective and we just have to be thankful that, despite Rafa’s injury woes, he is still able to battle on without the need for the intervention of constant surgery.
Good point Lorna, regarding his first knee surgery in 2019. That’s what I alluded to [a time span] in my previous statement about “less invasive procedures” prior to deciding on surgery.
This is the KICKER I found out only yesterday. JMDP started training in December of 2018 and although he initially injured his knee in October 2018, he didn’t have any bone fragments removed AND he is practicing. OMG
Against his physician’s advice, he plays Delray Beach, February 2019, and makes it to the QF with his knee heavily strapped. He said he “didn’t want to watch tournaments from home” and had to play.
I don’t think Rafa was ever this naughty about recuperating.
His first surgery was performed on June 22, 2019, in Barcelona, by Rafa’s doctor, Angel Cotorro after Queens. The Spanish language article said he needed bone fragments removed.
Still in pain, he flew to Miami where Dr. Lee Kaplan operated on him on January 27 2020.
Still in pain, he then flew to Switzerland to see Roger’s doctor, Ronald Biedert, who operated on him August 26, 2020.
His fourth surgery had him in Chicago last week yet with a different doctor.
Best wishes to Juan Martin that his dream of competing again becomes reality.
Dominic Thiem on Rafa:
Luigi Gatto
@gigicat7_
·
9m
#Thiem: “It’s always great to face the Big Three because you learn something new every time. The key is to really believe you can win. I had the most epic matches against Rafa Nadal, both in 2020 #AusOpen and 2018 US Open. Rafa is so kind and nice, I speak to him about football!”
The two adorables. I love Thiem’s accent.
Another warrior is down, hopefully not for long.
“Wawrinka said Thursday that he would be out “for a few weeks.” The French Open starts May 23; he won at Roland Garros in 2015.
“After having some problems in my left foot for a while, I have decided to do a small procedure on it,” Wawrinka wrote on his social media accounts.
The world No. 21, who turns 36 on Sunday, lost first-round matches at both tournaments he played this month, at Rotterdam and Doha.
Wawrinka lost in the second round at the Australian Open in January.
He could also target his local clay-court tournament in Switzerland in the week before the French Open. Wawrinka won the Geneva Open in 2016 and 2017, which was his last title on the ATP circuit.” .[Source: ESPN]
Maybe Roger will play Swiss clay.