Rafa shows the strain
THE Australian Open next month has been thrown into further turmoil after news that 20-times grand slam champion Rafael Nadal has contracted Covid-19.
The Spaniard announced he had tested positive for the virus after arriving home from an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi, where he was defeated by Andy Murray in the semifinals on Friday. He had returned to action only last week after four months recovering from a foot injury.
Nadal, 35, was scheduled to travel to Melbourne next week before his first warm-up tournament but it seems likely he will now pull out, which would be a significant blow to his preparations for the scheduled start of the Australian Open on January 17. He is at present experiencing unspecified symptoms during his 10day period of self-isolation.
“I am having some unpleasant moments but I hope that I will improve little by little,” Nadal said. “I am now homebound and have reported the result to those who have been in contact with me. As a consequence of the situation, I have to have total flexibility with my calendar and I will analyse my options depending on my evolution.”
Whether the first grandslam tournament of 2022 goes ahead remains to be seen. Organisers are anxiously monitoring developments with the Omicron variant and understandably have concerns about its rapid rate of transmission. More than 3000 players, coaches and other associated staff from around the world are due to begin arriving in Australia after Christmas Day, raising the potential for logistical chaos with closecontact protocols should there be further cases discovered.
Emma Raducanu suffered considerable disruption to her preparations for the new season when she tested positive after arriving in Abu Dhabi 10 days ago. The 19-year-old was forced to cancel an exhibition match against the Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic last week and attempted to keep up her fitness in quarantine by walking around her hotel room in circles.
The US Open champion is likely to play her first match of the new year in Melbourne on January 3 or 4.
“I just want to look back at the end of 2022 and think that I
have improved in some way and also learned,” Raducanu said. “I have got a lot of learning to do. It might take longer to recover but we’ll see. I’m looking forward to getting started.”