World No.1 player Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition in Abu Dhabi next week. This latest piece of news is yet another setback to the beginning of the 2018 season and casts some serious doubt as to whether Nadal will be ready to play some competitive tennis by the start of the year at the Brisbane international.
Nadal’s withdrawal from the exhibition means that fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut will take his place in the draw, getting a bye into the semi-final where he will play the winner of Kevin Anderson and Pablo Carreno Busta. On the other side of the 6 man draw is Novak Djokovic, who also gets a bye and faces the winner of Dominic Thiem and Andrey Rublev in the semi-final.
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It is another serious blow for the event, who were boasting unbelievable names of three-time slam winner Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic and Rafa, but all three names have since dropped out through injury.
Knee injuries continue to plague Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal has suffered with knee injuries for large spells of his glittering tennis career, but is the latest step backwards one that could impact his consolidation of being the top player in the world right now? It is a worrying time. The good thing for Nadal in comparison to many of his foes is that he should by now be able to judge when to make the next move onto competitive match play and how long he should take off because of the nature of the injury. The previous experiences of dealing with this particular problem should allow him to make the right call and, most importantly, not to rush his way back, because often that can lead to an even great problem and an even greater injury in the long run.
Also, Nadal withdrawing from this event should not necessarily ring alarm bells just yet. If he was to withdraw from the tournament in Brisbane, then that would be the time to really start thinking and contemplating when we next see Nadal on a tennis court.
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