Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal was close to tears as he was forced out of the French Open with a wrist injury.
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“I had an MRI (scan) and the results are not positive”.
“It’s not broken, but if I continue to play it will be broken in a few days”, said an emotional Nadal, the fourth seed.
“To win the tournament, I need five more matches, and the doctor says that’s 100 per cent impossible”.
“He didn’t want to make this announcement, but the people around him, his physicians, told him not to play, because the risk was that the tendon could break”.
“He did not practice this morning, so I figured there was a problem”, tournament director Guy Forget said.
“I worked so hard to recover my level, and I think I was there”.
Nadal had coasted through the first two rounds in Paris dropping just nine games but revealed he had needed pain-killing injections in his wrist to take part. He expects to be ready for Wimbledon, which starts exactly a month from Friday.
Nadal has ruled the French Open in a way no other man ever dominated any Grand Slam tournament.
Nadal won the French Open four times in a row from 2005-08, then another five straight from 2010-14.
It was a huge blow to the tournament as Nadal had been expected to face world number one Novak Djokovic in the semifinal, having lost to the Serb in the quarters previous year. “It’s impacting you and me”, Forget said.
“Today I felt I could not move my wrist”, added the dejected Spaniard, who showed no signs of the injury during his 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 second-round win over Facundo Bagnis on Thursday. Nadal’s exit means the man who was supposed to be his next opponent, Marcel Granollers of Spain, gets a walkover into the fourth round; win that, and Granollers will reach his first quarterfinal in 35 appearances at majors.
When Forget got a phone call from a member of Nadal’s entourage, he knew for certain something was wrong.
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“I have a problem with my wrist that I had for a couple of weeks”, he said.
