The 22 Grand Slam owner has not played a game since losing to MacKenzie McDonald in the second round of the Australian Open last month. A second-degree hip tear puts Rafael Nadal on hold for six to eight weeks.
This is also the reason why the 36-year-old tennis player does not want to risk playing again, leading to Nadal’s absence from two ATP tournaments in Doha and Dubai later this month.
Replacing Nadal in the Dubai Tennis Championships 2023 will be Marc Andrea Husler of Switzerland. Injury also caused Marin Cilic to withdraw from the tournament in Dubai and the place was given to American tennis player Maxime Cressy.
This year’s Dubai Tennis Championships takes place at the same time as the clay tournament in Acapulco, where Nadal won last season, from February 27 to March 4. The Spaniard will be deducted 500 points after this event closes.
He was forced to race against time to recover in time for his goal of defending 600 points of last year’s Indian Wells runner-up title – Nadal lost to Taylor Fritz in the final. Right after Indian Wells ends, the second Masters 1000 in the US will take place in Miami. The last time, Nadal attended the Miami Open was in 2017 and reached the final. He has not won this tournament once after 13 visits here.
Next week, Novak Djokovic will go to Dubai as the number one seed, ranked above Andrey Rublev (second) and Felix Auger Aliassime (third). The ATP 500 champion in Dubai will receive more than $500,000 in prize money, while the qualifying player will receive $2,000.
