Rafa Nadal’s defeat against Novak Djokovic has brought immediate consequences. Not only because he will not be able to add the fourteenth Roland Garros title and surpass Roger Federer in the total of Grand Slams. The Spaniard, just after leaving the Philippe Chatrier, questioned his participation in the next Wimbledon tournament, an uncertainty that joins the one he already had about the Olympic Games.
“We’ll see,” he replied when asked at a press conference about his next tournament. «For now I’m going home, with family and friends. I will try to rest, because it has been two intense months. Wimbledon is in two weeks and now everything is different than when I was 25, 26 or 27 years old. Now I am 35. I have to see how I recover before deciding whether or not to play there. I need to take a few days off and quiet and then make the decision, ”said Nadal.
The initiative of Roland Garros to delay the start of the tournament for a week, to allow the public to enter the facilities, upset the calendar, cutting the grass tour and causing the gap between the final in Paris and the start of Wimbledon to be long. only a week. In addition, Wimbledon, which was already suspended last year for the first time since World War II, has imposed a series of restrictions on tennis players that break with the tradition that Nadal has carried out since he debuted in the tournament in the junior edition of 2002.
The Spaniard usually stays in a house near the All England Club, in the Wimbledon neighborhood. Every year he rents the same residence, just like other players like Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic. Others like Andy Murray come directly from home. However, this will not be possible this year and all players, as well as those around them, will have to stay in official hotels in central London. Without exceptions.
Wimbledon is the Grand Slam in which Nadal has not reached a final the longest. He has not achieved it since 2011, although in his last two participations, 2018 and 2019, he reached the semifinals, stopped by Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, respectively. Without the possibility of playing a previous tournament to prepare for the assault on the grass and without the celebration of the classic exhibitions in London, such as Hurlingham, Nadal could choose to skip Wimbledon and rest to go directly to the Olympics.
There is barely a month and a half left until the start of the Olympic tournament in Tokyo, but Nadal has not confirmed his participation in it either, where he defends the gold medal in doubles that he won in Rio de Janeiro with Marc López. «In a normal year I would never hesitate to play the Games. We all know how important they are to me. But in the current circumstances, I don’t know. We’ll see, “Nadal said a few days ago.
The end of the Olympic tournament will be on July 30, just days before the American tour begins with the dispute of the 1,000 Masters in Cincinnati and Canada, in a space of two weeks. The congestion of the calendar, since the United States Open begins on August 30 – a tournament that Nadal has won four times – may lead the Spaniard to renounce Wimbledon, the Games or both and, at 35 years of age , tournament selection is a determining factor for success and injury prevention.
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