The 36-year-old Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal dropped out of the Top 5, and we will hardly see him again on the court before the Montecarlo Masters 1000. His big goal is obviously the Roland Garros, where he will go hunting for the 15th seal of him.
It has become official that Nadal will not participate in either the ATP 250 in Doha (February 20-25) or the ATP 500 in Dubai (February 27-March 4). Rafa will lose the 500 points deriving from the title won last year in Acapulco and will fall further in the standings.
The Spaniard is currently in sixth position with 3815 points, 100 more than Felix Auger-Aliassime. World number 8 Taylor Fritz has 3410, followed by Holger Rune and Hubert Hurkacz. Nadal’s permanence in the Top 10 is also undermined by Cameron Norrie and Daniil Medvedev, who have 2760 and 2750 points respectively.
It is not yet clear whether the Majorcan will participate in the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Miami. In California Rafa defends last year’s final, when he surrendered to Taylor Fritz and a broken rib.
Rafael Nadal had a bad start of 2023
Nadal had skipped Miami and Monte Carlo in 2022, before leaving prematurely in Madrid and Rome.
Arriving in Paris in precarious conditions, Nadal left everyone speechless by forfeiting his 22nd Major. The former world number 1 was hooked by Novak Djokovic at the top of the all-time Grand Slam rankings, after the Serbian won his tenth Australian Open a few weeks ago.
Rafa’s physical condition worries fans, who are asking many questions about their idol’s future. The Spanish has no longer expressed his best tennis since the semifinal reached at Wimbledon last year and has won only one match in 2023.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion will try to reverse the course on his favorite surface. Nadal’s 2023 certainly didn’t start under a lucky star. The Spanish phenomenon left the scene prematurely at the Australian Open, where he was called to defend the title won in 2022, as well as having sustained a second-degree injury to the ileo-psoas.
