“I have no choice but to be careful at this stage and think about health.” Thus ends the declaration by which Rafael Nadal announced his resignation from the Canadian Masters 1000, which takes place this year in Montreal from August 8 to 14. The Balearic will not be able to revalidate the title he won in the French-speaking city in 2019 because of the discomfort he has felt in recent days, still in his abdomen. A minor tear in that area prevented him from reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals last month against Nick Kyrgios.

“Since the vacation days and my subsequent return to training, everything has gone well these weeks in terms of training and preparation. Four days ago I also started service training and yesterday, after training, I had a little discomfort which was still there today. We decided not to go to Montreal and to continue training without forcing”, explained Nadal, who regretted not being able to participate in a tournament in which he is rather good (he won it five times) and who will also not have Novak Djokovic, who was released due to the impossibility of entering Canada without being vaccinated.

The evolution of Rafa’s discomfort will mark his calendar, which could pass through Cincinnati (August 14-21) if his problems disappear. Otherwise, the next goal for him would be to be at the US Open (August 29 to September 11). Nadal loses options to be world number againalthough it would still be possible, given that he is currently only defending 545 points this year, less than the leader, Medvedev (3,360), and the second, Zverev (1,810).