‘It’s never an easy decision’: Nadal withdraws from Wimbledon, Olympics

TENNIS great Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from Wimbledon and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, citing health and fitness concerns.

The 35-year-old lost his bid to win his 14th French Open men’s singles title last week, falling to Novak Djokovic in an epic semi-final clash that lasted for over four hours.

“Hi all, I have decided not to participate at this year’s Championships at Wimbledon and the Olympic Games in Tokyo,” Nadal announced via Twitter on Thursday.

“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.”

The Spaniard, who has won a joint-highest 20 Grand Slam titles with Roger Federer, is concerned by the tight schedule between the high-level competitions and their likely impact on his fitness.

The Wimbledon Championship, which is the third Grand Slam in the calendar, starts on Monday, 28 June and ends on Sunday, 11 July, while the Olympics begin on 23 July.

“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 he maximum level of competition,” Nadal added in the Twitter thread to his 15.5 million followers.

“The fact that there has only been two weeks between Roland Garros 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.

“Sport prevention of any kind of excess in my body is a very important factor at this stage of my career in order to try to keep fighting for the highest level of competition and titles.

“I want to send a special message to my fans around the world, to those in the United Kingdom and Japan in particular.”

Nadal, who won men’s tennis singles gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympics and doubles gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics, admitted that withdrawing from the Games was not a decision he was happy to take.

He wrote: “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 three of them and had the honour to be the flag bearer for my country.“