Rafael Nadal (36), who has been away from tennis since January 18th, said he can’t confirm his presence at the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo, the first major clay court tournament of the season, but will try to recover from injury in time.
Nadal does not want to return to further suffer the ordeal of injuries, incomplete recoveries and uncertainty that have accompanied him for more than a year.
For this reason, the Spaniard, who has not competed for more than two months because of his injury to the iliac psoas in his left leg during the Australian Open, took advantage of an awards ceremony for his foundation in Palma de Mallorca to play down his chance of competing in Monte Carlo.
“I don’t know who is putting out this information. Obviously, if it were true I would confirm it, but unfortunately I can’t confirm it.
“We have to take it day by day and I won’t promise something that I won’t be able to do afterwards.
“I will say things when I really know them, but right now I don’t know,” said Nadal.
The Monte Carlo tournament will begin on April 9th, so there are almost two weeks left for the former world number one to get up to speed, although he himself commented that he is making progress: “I know I’m on my course and the truth is that I don’t know when I’ll be back.
“I’m in a phase of increasing work. If I knew when I was going to come back, I would say so, but I don’t know”.
The European clay-court season, his speciality, starts in April once the Miami Open is over.
The Mallorcan, currently ranked 13th in the ATP rankings, would play one more match (from the first round of the tournament) than the top eight seeds in Monte Carlo.
That’s why arriving at 100% is fundamental and the 22-time Grand Slam winner is fully aware of this: “I hope to be back soon, but I don’t know when or where. I can’t say yes to one thing or no to another.
“I know that Monte Carlo is the first event and I don’t know if I’ll make it or not, although I’m going to try. Right now I’m not in a position to say a specific thing because I don’t know.
“When I know, I’ll announce it and we’ll make the decisions we think are best to try to come back with as little risk as possible“.
Although he is also signed up for the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, and the Madrid and Rome Masters 1000s, Nadal’s clear objective is to arrive in optimum condition for the second major of the year, Roland Garros – which will be held from May 28th to June 11th – where he has been crowned champion on 14 occasions.
