Rafael Nadal Announces He Won't Take Part In Wimbledon & Olympics To 'Prolong His Career'

"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," Nadal wrote after deciding to quit Wimbledon and Olympics this year.

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Madrid: Rafael Nadal, the one with the joint-highest number of grand-slam titles has decided to not take part in the upcoming Wimbledon Championship and the Tokyo Olympics 2020. He said that he wants to play tennis for a longer time and thus, he needs to take a break to sustain his career for a longer period of time. 

Nadal announced this decision in a series of tweets on his Twitter account. He said that he took the decision after consulting his team. "Hi all, I have decided not to participate at this year’s Championships at Wimbledon and the Olympic Games in Tokyo. 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," Nadal wrote on Twitter. 

Rafa Nadal recently lost in the semi-final of the French Open 2021 against Novak Djokovic. Nadal had won the competition 13 times before and was looking good to win his 21st grand-slam ever, but Djokovic had different plans. Nonetheless, Nadal has decided to take a break and come back stronger on the hard-court in the US and Australian Open. 

"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. The fact that there has only been 2 weeks between RG and Wimbledon, didn’t make it easier on my body to recuperate after the always demanding clay court season. They have been two months of great effort and the decision I take is focused looking at the mid and long term," he added in the tweet. 

 

Nadal wrote that he "wants to send a special message to my fans around the world, to those in the United Kingdom and Japan in particular" that "The Olympic Games always meant a lot and they were always a priority as a Sports person, I found the spirit that every sports person in the world wants to live. I personally had the chance to live 3 of them and had the honor to be the flag bearer for my country.“