Grass threatens Nadal’s sore knees

London – Rafael Nadal (left) remains the king of clay, but for the first time since 2010 the world number one arrives at Wimbledon harbouring only slender hopes of winning the tournament.

Nadal extended his incredible record on the red dirt of Roland Garros earlier this month as he crushed Dominic Thiem to win his 11th French Open title.

The Spaniard has this year also claimed the Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome titles.

While the 32-year-old’s superiority on clay is unquestioned, he has found it far harder to transfer that dominance to the All England Club’s lawns. The 17-time Grand Slam champion won the most recent of his two Wimbledon titles eight years ago and hasn’t been past the last 16 since 2011.

Nadal has admitted in the past that he finds it hard to make the transition from clay to grass. The low bounce threatens to aggravate the knee injuries that have plagued him for years.

With that in mind, he decided to withdraw from last week’s warm up at Queen’s Club.

“I had a very intense campaign on clay and my body needed rest because drastic changes are not good,” Nadal said.

“I will certainly arrive at Wimbledon with less preparation, but I’m going with confidence high because I played very well through the whole clay-court season.” –