Nadal has won this event a record nine times in his career, but past year was beaten in the quarterfinals by Novak Djokovic.
Advertisement
Nadal revealed during a press conference on Friday that the wrist became an issue during the Rome Masters earlier this month.
The Spaniard said he had been playing with an anesthetic injection in the wrist in the first two rounds and that MRI scans had shown that the injury was getting worse. The sheath of his tendon is “suffering” and more pounding could lead to a broken wrist, according to the fourth seed.
It was his seventh win in seven matches against the 37-year-old as Murray goes on to face either John Isner of the United States or Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russian Federation.
“Yesterday I played with an injection on the wrist with anaesthetic”.
The abrupt announcement sent shock waves through Roland Garros, where Nadal has cast the longest shadow across the red clay for more than a decade, winning more singles titles here than any other player in history.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic takes part in a training session at the Roland Garros 2016 French Tennis Open in Paris on Saturday.
The clay court slam has been robbed of two of its biggest attractions after Roger Federer, the 17-times grand slam champion and victor in 2009, withdrew with a back injury last week. “You wait for these two weeks for the whole year, and having to retire today is a very bad news for me”.
“It was very close right from the first game – Lucie and I typically play matches like this one”, Stosur said.
The world number five, seeded four at the tournament he once owned, destroyed Argentina’s Facundo Bagnis 6-3 6-0 6-3 to reach the third round with the loss of only nine games, chalking up a 200th match victory in grand slams.
“At one point it felt like I had trouble bringing my hip back around when I would sprint forward when my left leg was behind me”.
There’s no guarantee he will be fit for Wimbledon, and the Spaniard who turns 30 next week but now be approaching the next phase of his career with a degree of trepidation. “But again, we keep on going, and I’m still in and I’m just hoping it’s going to go well for me”. We expect to recover quickly, to be ready for Wimbledon. “At the moment it’s day by day”, he said. “There’ s no way I can play before I can use the forehand”.
Muguruza, who was the runner-up at Wimbledon a year ago and reached the quarterfinals at the French Open in 2014 and 2015, lost one service game to Wickmayer in the first set but otherwise had no real difficulties. Heading into the French Open, Nadal hadn’t been beyond the third round at his last three majors.
“Tennis needs Rafa and he couldn’t take the risk of being away from the courts for six months or a year”, Forget told reporters.
Advertisement
‘This is a tough moment and the toughest press conference I have ever had to give but it’s not the end’.
