Rafa Nadal out of Australian Open 2013
Rafael Nadal suffered a stomach virus that will forced him to miss the 2013 Australian Open and probably won't play again until the end of February.
The Spaniard said he needs time to recover from the virus that already prevented him from coming back this week at Abu Dhabi.
"We just hope he gets better quickly and we see him back on the tour as soon as possible," Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said. "Tennis fans across the world have been missing him."
While he is expected to recover from the virus in time for the year's first Grand Slam tournament, Nadal and his team said he wouldn't have the proper preparation for a five-set event.
"My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well as predicted by the doctors," Nadal said in a statement. "But this virus didn't allow me to practice this past week and therefore I am sorry to announce that I will not play in Doha and the Australian Open."
"As my team and doctors say, the safest thing to do is to do things well and this virus has delayed my plans of playing these weeks," Nadal said. "I always said that my return to competition will be when I am in the right conditions to play and after all this time away from the courts I'd rather not accelerate the comeback and prefer to do things well."
Nadal's doctor, Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, said in the same statement that the player needed at least a week to recover from the virus. That ruled him out for the Qatar Open, which starts Jan. 2.
Nadal's coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, said going straight to a five-set tournament after being sidelined so long was "not appropriate."
"It is simply not conceivable that his first event is a best-of-five sets event," he said in a statement. "He wouldn't be ready for that."
Source AP
Photo AP Photo/David Vincent
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