Rafael Nadal says he is pulling out of Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics
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Alexandra Ma
Jun 17, 2021, 19:29 IST
Rafael Nadal.Getty/Tim Clayton-Corbis
Rafael Nadal announced he's pulling out of this year's Wimbledon and Tokyo Olympics.
The Spanish tennis star said he was "listening" to his body after a taxing clay-court season.
Last week he lost in the French Open to the tournament's eventual winner, Novak Djokovic.
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Rafael Nadal on Thursday announced he would not play at this year's Wimbledon or Tokyo Olympics.
The Spanish tennis star said in a Twitter thread that he made the decision after "listening" to his body.
"It's never an easy decision to take but after listening to my body and discuss it with my team I understand that it is the right decision," he said.
"The goal is to prolong my career and continue to do what makes me happy, that is to compete at the highest level and keep fighting for those professional and personal goals at the maximum level of competition."
He said the two-week gap between the French Open and Wimbledon "didn't make it easier on my body to recuperate."
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"The decision I take is focused looking at the mid and long term," he wrote.
He has won Wimbledon twice and an Olympic gold medal in 2008.
Victory for Djokovic saw him move to 19 career Grand Slam singles titles, meaning that if he wins both remaining Grand Slam tournaments this year - Wimbledon and the US Open - he will leapfrog both Nadal and Federer in the all-time standings.
At 35, Nadal is nearing the end of his career
Speaking with Insider ahead of the French Open, Nadal reflected on his career and said that when he eventually retired he would rather be remembered as a "good person" than a tennis legend.
"Because what's most important in this life is be happy. If you are a good person, you have good people, good friends, happiness is easier to find. And life is hopefully much longer than a tennis career."
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It is unclear when Nadal will eventually hang up his racket, but he hinted in April that we would most likely play on for "the next couple of years."
"I hope to have the chance to keep around the tournaments for the next couple of years," he said at a press conference ahead of the Barcelona Open.
Federer, Nadal's closest and fiercest rival, is 39 and now almost exclusively plays in large tournaments like Grand Slams as he looks to prolong his career past his 40th birthday.
It isn't clear whether Nadal intends to do the same.
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