Rafa Nadal will not participate in the 70th edition of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-Trofeu Comte de Godó. In the end, he did not recover in time from the injury that has kept him out of the courts since the Australian Open in January. “Barcelona is a special tournament for me, because it is my adopted club and because playing at home is always a unique feeling. I am still not ready and, therefore, I am continuing my preparation process for returning to the competition”, pointed out the Balearic tennis player.
The 12-time winner of the Trofeu Godó has tried to exhaust the deadlines to arrive in time for one of his favorite tournaments but, after giving up the Monte Carlo Masters 1000, he has also done the same with Barcelona. “Good luck to my friend David Ferrer and his whole team for this edition of the Godó, which will surely be a success at all levels as always”, added Nadal in his statement.
The manacorà underwent a final test at his academy on Thursday and the result was not satisfactory. He did not feel ready to reappear in such a demanding test.
At the age of 36, he has not played since suffering a hip injury in the second round of the last Australian Open. “Grade 2 injury to the iliac psoas of the left leg. The normal time for full recovery will be between 6 and 8 weeks”, said the official statement from mid-January.
However, three months later the Mallorcan continues to enter home, on clay but without competing. He doesn’t look 100 percent and won’t come back until he feels competitive. The next season in which he could reappear would be the Masters 1000 in Madrid, which takes place from April 26 to May 7.
The inactivity has led him to drop in the ranking to fifteenth place, when he had not been outside the top ten since April 2005.
For his part, David Ferrer, sports director of the tournament, regretted the loss of the former number one in the world: “It’s a shame not to be able to count on Rafa. He is a player we love very much and, faced with a situation like this, we can only send him lots of encouragement and wish him a speedy recovery.”
The preliminary phase of the Godó Trophy starts today, the day that the draw for the main draw will also take place, which will kick off next Monday.
The RCT Barcelona tournament presents a luxury line-up, led by Carlos Alcaraz, who is already training on the Barcelona courts. The Murcian will be supported by other top tennis players at the moment, such as the Greek Stéfanos Tsitsipà s, the Norwegian Casper Rudd or the Italian Jannik Sinner. The Russian Medvedev has decided not to come.
