Rafael Nadal set to play the ATP Finals in London
Rafael Nadal will be in the ATP Finals draw. The Spanish player underwent a medical test on Monday which revealed he did not suffer a rupture on his right abdominal, but just a distension. Nadal will travel to London with his coach Carlos Moya trying to win the year-end tournament for the first time after losing championship clashes in 2010 and 2013. Nadal will also try to finish the season as a world No. 1 ahead of Novak Djokovic. Nadal plans to practice on Wednesday and then start hitting serve between Thursday and Friday. Nadal skipped the ATP Finals six times and he did not want to withdraw for the seventh time. Obviously, he may have a setback as he suffered an injury on Saturday last week in Paris Masters withdrawing from the semifinal match against Denis Shapovalov and he may start his campaign in London on Sunday. "The idea is to be able to play", Nadal wrote.
If Nadal will not be able to play, his compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut will replace him. Both Nadal and Bautista Agut are set to play the new Davis Cup Finals in Madrid from 18 to 24 November. Last year Nadal was forced to announce his forfeit from London due to a foot injury. He won two Grand Slam titles this year, the French and US Opens.
"I had this issue in the US Open 2009 with a bad experience. Because I started the tournament with, if I remember, around 6, 7, millimeters of strain and I keep playing, I keep playing. And that was the year that I lost the semifinals against Del Potro", Nadal recalled last week in a press conference.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/36zl9bV
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