Nadal’s bitter injury lament
Rafael Nadal has bitterly questioned the heavy workload of the tennis schedule for a spate of injuries that are jeopardising tennis stars’ futures after he was forced to retire in the fifth set of his Australian Open quarterfinal after yet another injury.
Annoyed to retire from his quarterfinal match against Marin Cilic and thus continue a wretched injury history at the Melbourne tournament, Nadal challenged tour organisers for the high number of injuries.
‘‘Somebody who is running the tour should think [a] little bit about what’s going on. Too many people getting injured,’’ Nadal said.
‘‘I don’t know if they have to think a little bit about the health of the players. Not for now that we are playing, but there is life after tennis. I don’t know if we keep playing in this very, very hard surfaces what’s going to happen in the future with our lives,’’ Nadal said.
‘‘It’s a negative thing, but I [am not] going to complain because [it] happened to me more than others. But on other hand, I was winning more than almost anyone. That’s the real thing. But who knows, if I didn’t have all these injuries,’’ Nadal said.
According to the ATP, Nadal has retired from matches eight times during his career but only twice in Grand Slams. They were both at the Australian Open – against Cilic and eight years ago in a quarterfinal against Andy Murray.
Nadal was uncertain when the injury struck him but thinks it was when he ran for a drop shot in the fourth set and felt pain high in his right leg. He said afterwards it was not his hip. He had treatment from the physio twice and tried to crunch the joint to release tension in the leg.
‘‘It is difficult to know exactly what it is now. Is difficult to know