Rafael Nadal Delays ATP Tour Comeback, Withdraws from Monte Carlo Masters 2024
On Thursday, Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Monte Carlo Masters, where it was anticipated that the 22-time Grand Slam champion will return to the ATP Tour.
“I regret to inform you that I will not be participating in the Monte Carlo tournament. On social media, the 37-year-old Spaniard stated, “My body just won’t let me.”
The record 11-time Monte Carlo winner was sidelined for almost the whole 2023 season due to injury, and he finally made an appearance at the Brisbane International this year before experiencing a recurrence of a hip ailment.
Before withdrawing from the Indian Wells Masters, where he had originally planned to make his comeback, he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in an exhibition match in Las Vegas in March.
“Even if I am working hard and making the maximum effort every day with all the will to play and compete again at tournaments that have been very important for me, the truth is that I can’t play today,” Nadal said.
“You can’t imagine how difficult it is for me to be unable to participate in these activities.
“The only thing I can do is to accept the situation and try to look at the immediate future keeping the excitement and will to play in order to give me a chance for things to get better.”
The clay-court expert, who was expected to enter the main draw of the first clay-court Masters 1000 event of the 2024 season in Monte Carlo with a protected ranking of ninth, has fallen to 646th in the ATP rankings.
Of Nadal‘s eleven victories in the Principality, the last came in 2018. He lost in the 2019 semi-finals, the 2021 quarterfinals, and the 2020, 2022, and 2023 tournaments.
He was expected to utilize Monte Carlo as a launching pad for what may have been his final French Open, a grand slam tournament that he had won an unprecedented 14 times.
