Rafael Nadal Will Play Australian Open and Then Take a Month to Rest

Written by: Staff on 30th December 2011

Rafael Nadal Will Play Australian Open and Then Take a Month to Rest

Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal celebrates after beating Argentinian Juan Monaco in the first match of the Tennis Davis Cup final between Spain and Argentina at Olympic stadium in Seville, southern Spain, 02 December 2011. Nadal won 6-1, 6-1 and 6-2. EPA/JULIO MUNOZ |

Rafael Nadal has announced he is taking a calculated gamble in bidding to reclaim the Australian Open title and intends to take a full month of rest following his return from Melbourne in order to overcome a shoulder injury that has been troubling him for some time.

The 25 year-old world no.2, who played such a heroic role in Spain’s winning the Davis Cup in a decisive fourth rubber five set confrontation against Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro revealed he was suffering from shoulder problems in Seville earlier this month and had in fact first experienced them in playing the Shanghai Rolex Masters in October where he lost early to German Florian Mayer.

Shoulder pain would explain his far from happy experience at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London last month where he failed to progress beyond the round robin group stage and revealed he was far from 100% fit.

Nadal, who begins his 2012 schedule today at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event in Abu Dhabi and also intends to contest next week’s ATP World Tour calendar opener, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, both of which come with lucrative appearance guarantees, said: “I had a problem before London with my shoulder and I had to stop for about 10 days before the ATP finals. It felt better again but resurfaced, I couldn’t practice.”

The Spaniard admitted he only decided at the beginning of this week to defend his title in Abu Dhabi and he was scheduled to be playing his Davis Cup winning compatriot David Ferrer in today’s semi-finals. Ironically it was also Ferrer who benefitted from Nadal being physically below par at last year’s Australian Open when an injured thigh was the problem.

“I have to stop after Australia and have a chance to practice,” said Nadal who played 84 ATP World Tour singles matches in 2011, more than any of his major rivals . “I need the February month to prepare for the rest of the season. The most important part of the season starts with Indian Wells (in March) and ends with Wimbledon, and this year it ends with the Olympics.”

Earlier this week Nadal blamed himself for allowing his play to become “too predictable” at times in 2011. But he insisted he wasn’t going to overhaul his game despite losing six finals against Novak Djokovic.

“This is not the time to change many things. This is the time to keep playing well, to keep improving my tennis,” Nadal said. “I will just try and be competitive in all the tournaments. I was competitive in all the tournaments (in 2011) and was in three grand slam finals.”

Topics: Juan Martin Del Potro, Rafael Nadal